(Another) Iomega Zip Drive for the Amigas

[walldog]

CONGRATULATION!

Really glad it worked for you .

Regarding the zip:bad icon.
You dont have to automount the zip mount file.
You may mount the ZIP after booting from hdd.

For example, you could add a small command to the "tools" menu to mount the zip as you whish.
Such as these:
http://m68k.aminet.net/package/util/app/AutoAppMenu3
Dont know if any of those are Kick 1.x compatible, though.

Well today I get to provide an update to the ZIP saga. So.. been using the zip disk and just leaving in the zip drive for various storage. Every now and then will back up a few files over there such as my pool of radiance save disk and a cool picture from Eric etc. Have some WP documents in there as well..

Back in January I used the Quarterback program to make a backup of my workbench and other partitions. At that time I saved a copy and or updated the starterup and mountlist sequences on each of my WB1.3 floppies that are inclusive of the zip drive parameters etc in the event I needed to restore from the zip disk need workbench to recognize and be able to mount it.

Yesterday had a field day with Eric's latest video and article on the use of Amidock! Just fantastic. Spent hours dialing in my bay, modifying brushes and I even made one for wordperfect. Great times right.

A few months back I was also struggling to restor a hard drive. Wanted a 4GB drive in my A590. Finally figured it out and been running since. That said, recently been getting some guru and lock ups on it. I figure its just "Amiga". Well I was wrong!

This morning woke up fired up mig and no go. no boot. Hard drive make bad noises.. AND I just put all that work into my new dock program! along with all other stuff I have done since my last backup early January! Not to mention I have NEVER actually restored a hard disk from zip...

Well I was able with a tad persuasion get the drive to boot one more time. I immediately performed another backup to Zip using Quarterback.

Installed a 500MB Quantum drive from the day. And thankfully was able to boot off floppy, partition with HD Install Toolsm then Initialize in Workbench. Then with Quarterback on floppy restore from the zip drive!

I am back up and running with fresh drive after about 2hrs (could go faster with more practice which I don't want anyway)

Yeah down to 500mb vs 4gb and but I am not even close to using that space. I am not sure but it seems I have tad more available ram as well.. If you have comments on this I would appreciate (the use of smaller drive on old A500)

Anyway I wanted to share to show how critical it is to backup hard drive and how important this earlier thread was to being able to use the Zip drive in the first place. Thanks to all who assisted with that.

I share for benefit of all and certainly more comments or suggestions welcome.

BR

[intric8]

If you have comments on this I would appreciate (the use of smaller drive on old A500)

So, I know I'm the oddball here but I prefer "small drives" on my Amigas. You can always add a second one if you ever lack for space.

My typical size - no joke - is 256MB. You need to save about 10MB for Workbench, because some programs (I'm looking at you, HippoPlayer) want to add a lot of files into the Workbench libs and other directories. A 256MB drive is - on average - twice the size of a lot of drives people used back in the day, and in some cases as much as 4X.

It's gobs of space for the "Work" side.

And the main benefit here is your boot-up time is fast. If you're not using all that extra space - like on a 4GB drive - then all you're really doing is forcing yourself to wait longer for your machine to boot.

My 2000 has a 40MB boot drive, which is mechanical, and 2GB SCSI2SD extra for programs and files and whatnot. It takes a lot longer to boot (maybe 20-25 seconds?) where my A3000 only takes about 11. To be honest, 2GB is plenty if not downright gluttonous.

It's all about how you use it, though.

Since you've got a Zip Drive already working, you can always use that for storage. It's not like I need 14,000 MOD files at my fingertips every time I launch a machine. As long as I have Double Dragon II, I'm good to go. =)

[walldog]

If you have comments on this I would appreciate (the use of smaller drive on old A500)

So, I know I'm the oddball here but I prefer "small drives" on my Amigas. You can always add a second one if you ever lack for space.

My typical size - no joke - is 256MB. You need to save about 10MB for Workbench, because some programs (I'm looking at you, HippoPlayer) want to add a lot of files into the Workbench libs and other directories. A 256MB drive is - on average - twice the size of a lot of drives people used back in the day, and in some cases as much as 4X.

It's gobs of space for the "Work" side.

And the main benefit here is your boot-up time is fast. If you're not using all that extra space - like on a 4GB drive - then all you're really doing is forcing yourself to wait longer for your machine to boot.

My 2000 has a 40MB boot drive, which is mechanical, and 2GB SCSI2SD extra for programs and files and whatnot. It takes a lot longer to boot (maybe 20-25 seconds?) where my A3000 only takes about 11. To be honest, 2GB is plenty if not downright gluttonous.

It's all about how you use it, though.

Since you've got a Zip Drive already working, you can always use that for storage. It's not like I need 14,000 MOD files at my fingertips every time I launch a machine. As long as I have Double Dragon II, I'm good to go. =)

So I am rolling with my 500mb Quantum drive. I made 1 200MB partition for workbench and have 169MB left after restore. Then I have a 300mb with a ton of whdload games and other stuff on there and still have 262MB left. Although the A590 with updated ROMs has demonstrated it can use a 4gb drive I am thinking it wasn't the best. I have gone through now 2 large drives in a short time. I know they are old drives but I am thinking heat and everything else associated is too much for the Amiga A590. That said, don't know for sure. I am anxious to see how this 500mb drive holds up. Will I get GURU and crashes leading up to big crash like other drives?

Right away I can see more ram available AND as Eric points out its booting faster. Programs coming up more snappy etc.

As usual I am just a padawon learner and must learn from the Jedi Master himself (Intrisic)...

To reflect I am so pumped I was able to perform a full restore from ZIP. Totally awesome...

[intric8]

Ha! Dude - I am by no means a master of any of this. I'm just a fan, like you. Just glad to be here.

[Zippy Zapp]

So, I know I'm the oddball here but I prefer "small drives" on my Amigas. You can always add a second one if you ever lack for space.

My typical size - no joke - is 256MB. You need to save about 10MB for Workbench, because some programs (I'm looking at you, HippoPlayer) want to add a lot of files into the Workbench libs and other directories. A 256MB drive is - on average - twice the size of a lot of drives people used back in the day, and in some cases as much as 4X.

LOL. I guess I am an oddball too. I usually use whatever I have and most of the drives I have were bought for the Amiga in 1991 or so. My original 2000 has a 350MB drive that was obviously upgraded after purchase. I also have 2 seagate 1GB drives and a Quantum 1GB drive too. They were all bought new back then so quite expensive IIRC because yeah everything was 80 - 256MB back then. And a SyQuest 88MB removable 5.25" drive with about (10) 88MB carts. We used this for saving stuff and backups. I haven't fired that drive up in a few years, probably need to.

I still haven't hooked up the SCSI ZIP drive I have to the Amiga. I did connect it to a Mac after I found it at a thrift store a few years ago.

Hard Drives are sadly failing for me too. I can see solutions like SCISI2SD as a necessity eventually. But even those I will stick to smallish partitions and SD Cards. I have plenty of 2GB cards for that.

[intric8]

Hard Drives are sadly failing for me too. I can see solutions like SCISI2SD as a necessity eventually. But even those I will stick to smallish partitions and SD Cards. I have plenty of 2GB cards for that.

So this is where I'm at these days. I've heard a small handful of people complain that the SD cards fail if you write to them excessively (like if you run a BBS or something) but for me, mine have been lasting for years. There isn't *that* much writing going on. Maybe the installation of a game then save files. It's miniscule.

Plus, zero noise, zero heat, and they require almost no power. Oftentimes they can receive enough power from just the SCSI cable - no power cable required. It's kind of amazing. Fights climate change!

And I do use 256MB sd cards - which are actually getting harder to find sometimes; I can only purchase them online via Amazon, and sometimes it's from third-party shops. A 500mb card is a nice compromise, but they can be even harder to locate. Fact is most folks simply don't look for cards that "small" anymore, and whatever you snatch up is likely old stock.

[Zippy Zapp]

And I do use 256MB sd cards - which are actually getting harder to find sometimes; I can only purchase them online via Amazon, and sometimes it's from third-party shops. A 500mb card is a nice compromise, but they can be even harder to locate. Fact is most folks simply don't look for cards that "small" anymore, and whatever you snatch up is likely old stock.

Yep I found the same. Small cards are hard to find and there are plenty of fake cards too. I stuck with 2GB because I could get a quality brand, it is still natively seen by the amiga and they were still made a couple of years ago for legacy SD card needs since everything now is SDXC, HC, UH etc. Straight SD has a max capacity of 2GB. Fortunately I have saved all of my SD Cards over the years so I have them ranging from 64MB to 128GB.

I think with the SCSI2SD utility you can create multiple devices on the SD card and not actually use all the space available. Then in essence you could use a larger drive as a smaller one.

But for me I can split a 2GB drive up to system, work, utils etc. I usually don't like to go more then 2 or 3 partitions on the Amiga but it seems to work from 1.3 up.