IZipFS

I have some problems to exchange data between my old and new computers. A Zip drive seems to be the best way for this, even if I must admit I never tried to read a Zip under my Pi (with a USB drive). I use a PC to do the job.

I saw there is the source code of IZipFS in Gitlab. Is the standalone module available somewhere? Does it work on RISC OS 3.x/4.x/5.x?

If it can support a parallel port drive under RISC OS 5, it would be nice for upgraded RPCs. But also for people who want to stay away from piracy.

What old computer(s) are we talking about here? Wouldn’t a USB key be suitable?

If applicable, there’s also the networking route: ShareFS, Moonfish, Samba, etc.

I spotted a bit of related news on Mastodon a few moments ago. Here’s the link. Phil Pemberton wrote: “Got the IZipFS (Iomega Zip) driver working on RISC OS 5!”. :)

USB key, on a RPC? :) Zip is really a good solution here. Very affordable on eBay, reliable and with more than enough capacity. Zip replaced all my floppies on all my computers.

I tried networking with many network cards and configurations: it just doesn’t work for me. I suspect because of 10 Mbit issues on my home network.

Nota: I’m really OK with my current configuration. But a 32bit driver interests me too.

With the help of Aemulor (and – I can dream – a 32bit port of the PC application), and the 32bit SCSI driver, it could help me to convert a RPC to RISC OS 5.

For fun (RPCEmu already does this), but not only.

My Iomega Zip is working with my RiscPC, and with ShareFs, I can get the content on my Armx6.

The problem is having a parallel USB adapter that works.

Or to have both parallel and usb zip drives :)

Zip is really a good solution here. … reliable …

As someone who owned a Zip drive in the 1990s and experienced the “click of death” first-hand, I’m struggling to parse that sentence! :-)

Or to have both parallel and usb zip drives :)

And SCSI (there are universal SCSI/parallel ones, too!). And IDE. When visiting Retro meetings in Germany, this is “standard stuff” and really much better than waiting for the next floppy disc read/write error, or wasting time while fiddling with serial port transfer with broken XModem implementations and creative nullmodem wiring.

Those ZIP drives that survived until now (only very few) seem to be very robust. The unreliable ones all died 25 years ago.

As someone who owned a Zip drive in the 1990s and experienced the “click of death” first-hand, I’m struggling to parse that sentence! :-)

As someone who had multiple drives for users to deal with, I had to take a break and come back when I was calmer.
Iomega “support” line had a choose option 1,2,3…
By the time I had finished playing that game, I had a mapped out tree of where the options and sub-options led – and that was always to a looped message that told you to log onto the web site and use the contact link (that they never responded to)

The escape method was to not press any key at all and hang on for a human.
Said human was terminally racked off with Zip click of death calls (the swearing gave that away: f’n cr%* !) but he did listen to my remarkably calm¹ description and advised shipping all working units back for a refund and to invest in alternate solutions.
We did just that² and the upset users were no longer a feature of the day/week

¹ I surprised myself with the degree of calmness.

I can’t believe anyone is contemplating using something as slow and unreliable as Zip drives – get networking working, it is infinitely better.

First if you have an old 10BaseT (or god forbid 10Base2) NIC, get a 100MB one, the usual suspects should have one in stock.
Failing that, don’t try to connect a 10BaseT NIC directly to a gigabit switch, get an old 10/100 bit switch for nothing on ebay and connect to the rest of your network via that.
Finally, ask here for help with networking, plenty will be able to help you get it going.

As someone who owned a Zip drive in the 1990s and experienced the “click of death” first-hand, I’m struggling to parse that sentence! :-)

Yes, the first version was subject to this default. The later ones are just rock solid. All my drives work today, and most of my zip discs are still OK. Magneto-optical drives are very good too, as long term backup solution.

I can’t say the same with floppies, where each tentative to read/write data could be the last, for the medium and the drive.

First if you have an old 10BaseT (or god forbid 10Base2) NIC, get a 100MB one, the usual suspects should have one in stock.

At wich price? 100 euros + almost the same in postal fees and taxes?
And what solution for an Archimedes?

Anyway, even if I connect my old computers together, they will not get access to my modern ones, that are in another room. So I’ll still need a way to transfer data between them.

For now, as floppies are just unreliable, I replaced them with an IDE Zip drive (Archimedes) and a SCSI Zip drive (RISC PC). On the PC side, in the second room, I use an USB drive. And that’s great.

I just plan to convert a RISC PC to RISC OS 5, and one thing that stops me, is the lack of 32bit driver for my parallel port zip drive. So my question.

I can’t believe anyone is contemplating using something as slow and unreliable as Zip drives – get networking working, it is infinitely better.

I do even stranger things, as using RISC OS 5 on a Pi 4 to do my business work and manage my company :)

Anyway, even if I connect my old computers together, they will not get access to my modern ones, that are in another room.

If I suggested that cat5e cable, being an old standard, is cheap and that you could cable between rooms, would that move you toward the network idea?
I know a number of people that have network sockets in most rooms.

OK, the idea hits a boulder in the road with Ricks mega thick walls inside his mini-castle, but most people have walls and floors more akin to tissue.

It hits a boulder in the road here too, with some thick walls inside a mini-manor :)

And I really have too much computers, to equip them all with pricey network cards (when they exists and are available). So, yes, I use and probably will use more network. But, no,I don’t think it will replace physical storage.

Anyway, that’s not the question. I have no problem making my computers talk together, even the computers that are not really adapted to networking (my Archimedes, for example).

I just saw that IZipFS could be compatible with RISC OS 5, and saw here an opportunity to modernize one of my RISC PC, without loosing connectivity. Even if I give it a network card, a Zip support will be great.