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I'm think I'm having problems with my new ZIP 250 drive.

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  • I'm think I'm having problems with my new ZIP 250 drive.

    I just purchased a new Zip 250 and the install went OK, but I appear to have data transfer issues. Bare with me as I am not in front of my computer so I may forget some things.
    Everything is default and I am on my secondary IDE port using Master. When I try to transfer large amounts of data, it freezes for a few seconds and then continues to transfer data, then freezes for a few more seconds. this continues until the data ransfer is done. Now, I understand that the drive has a slower seek time and can only peek out at 2.4Mbs but I don't think I should be seeing pausing. I have the read ahead cache selected under performance options, I have DMA checked, int13, sync data transfer, and one more that I can't remember. I tried disabling some of them, but not all of them. I'll probably disable all of them and then enable one at a time. anyone have any ideas?

    almost forgot my specs:

    K6-2 400 on Asus P5A w/ 1006 final BIOS. 192MB PC-100 RAM. G200, SBLive!, Intel video capture card all have latest drivers and BIOS. I have a Quantum and Fujitsu hooked up to primary IDE and the Zip 250 and a 40X Aopen CD-ROM hooked to the secondary IDE.

    Dave

    [This message has been edited by Helevitia (edited 05-28-99).]
    Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

  • #2
    Not sure whether it helps for you but for my Zip Internal 100, I set the PIO mode to 4. I had set it to auto originally and the harddisk connected on the same ide cable as the zip drive felt like a floppy!

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    • #3
      sorrie for the repeat :P

      [This message has been edited by Lee KC (edited 05-30-99).]

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      • #4
        Lee KC,

        Thanks for the suggestion, but I had already tried setting it to the only two settings I can which is AUTO and NONE. Either one finds my Zip 250 via P&P and automatically puts it into PIO mode 4. I am curious though, if you transfer a 100MB file from your HDD to your Zip drive, does it pause during files? ie; I still see the windows paper flying across the screen, but the percentage bar stops for up to a minute, almost like it has to cache the data or something. Anyhow, all help is appreciated

        Thanks,

        Dave
        Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

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        • #5
          Maybe the problem is caused by double caching or IDE HDD block mode (which should be turned off in the bios).

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          • #6
            This is a strange one - I have a Zip250 SCSI version, and I don't suffer from this problem. Therefore I guess it must be something to do with the IDE set-up. Have you tried having the Zip drive all on its own on the IDE channel? Changing the master/slave setting? I have a similar problem on my PD drive - it's the write cache that seems to be the cause. The PC feeds the drive a load of data, and then it must wait for the drive to finish writing it before it gives it its next load. Try fiddling with the cache settings.

            Eventhough I was involved in the Zip250 beta testing, you can't blame me for this one - I only tested SCSI drives!


            ------------------
            Cheers,
            Steve

            Running on a PC with all sorts of bits n bobs in it helping to find ET calling home...

            Currently running PD 5.12.xx and BIOS 2.5xx

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            • #7
              One thing that's just hit me, is: are you trying to write to 100mb zip disks? There were MAJOR problems in doing so in the testing, and they haven't done a great job in fixing them....

              ------------------
              Cheers,
              Steve

              Running on a PC with all sorts of bits n bobs in it helping to find ET calling home...

              Currently running PD 5.12.xx and BIOS 2.5xx

              Comment


              • #8
                Steve is right. The problem with the Zip250 is that they handle the old 100MB disks like expensive china. Try setting PIO to 3 and see what happens. Also try disabling write-behind caching in Control Panel/System/Performance/File System/TroubleShooting.

                Dan

                ------------------
                ABIT BX6r2, Celeron 400a, Mill G200 16MB SGRAM, Monstersound
                MX300, WD 6.4GB HDD, Hi-Val 40x40 CD-ROM
                System Specs...
                MSI MS-6309->Bios:1.3 Drivers:VIA AGP v4.03
                Intel PentiumIII 667MHz
                192MB PC100 SDRAM (1x128 Siemens & 1x64 Micron)
                Matrox MillG400MAX->Bios:1.6 Drivers:PD5.52
                Diamond MX300->Drivers: Aureal Reference 2048
                USR 56k ISA Modem
                Adaptec 2930c SCSI Host Adapter
                Imation 8x20 CD-R
                Imation LS-120
                Kenwood 72x TrueX CD-ROM
                WD 8.4G HDD (Win98) WD 6.4G HDD (BeOS 4.5.2)

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                • #9
                  Thanks for all of the good info.

                  It turns out that I'm just an idiot. One of the files that I transferred was gigantic and therefore it appeared the file was hanging but it was actually just chugging along at a 3 times slower rate than my regular hard driver. When I transferred this same file from one directory to another directory on the same harddrive, it would still take 15 sec(as opposed to almost a minute ot the ZIP), so that's what it was. also, I was not using 100MB disks but the 250MB disks. Thanks for all your help

                  Dave
                  Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

                  Comment

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