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I have a need to retrieve some data from a zip drive, but I cannot remember what I need to get everything working.

What I have:

Old PC with IDE controller running fresh install of WinXP SP3 ZIP drive with IDE interface

The CD-ROM in the PC was working, so I unplugged that cable and plugged it into the zip drive. I also set the jumper to "Master".

However, the BIOS does not see the zip drive, and neither does windows. I've tried both connectors on the IDE cable (I vaguely remember the days where A/B drives needed a twisted cable for the 2nd drive) but it didn't seem to make a difference.

What do I need to do to get this working? And will I need drivers, or will WinXP recognize the zip drive once I get the BIOS to see it?

(I can't even find tags to describe this problem :)

Oliver Salzburg
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chris
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1 Answers1

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Windows XP (at least with Service Pack 3 installed, and possibly also only with older levels of Servce Packs) should have no trouble recognizing a 100 MB Zip drive for you. Even without a disk inserted, the drive should still be detected by Windows XP. The fact that your BIOS doesn't detect it points more to hardware though...

If your computer is really old, you could be experiencing a lack of support from the hardware. Sometimes a BIOS update can resolve these sorts of issues. Also, try different power connectors (in case you got a bad one), or replace the IDE cable. If all that fails, you could try using an IDE add-in card (assuming you have one) -- are you certain that it's IDE?

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Randolf Richardson
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