A Zip cartridge has no external write-protect switch:
instead there is a write-protect setting stored inside,
outside of LBA space.
The USB Zip drive supports the Iomega
vendor-specific command sequence that toggles
on/off the read/write-protect with/without p*ssword,
same as other Zip drives.
The Zip command set dates largely from comdex 1994:
Scsi II rather than Scsi III. Changes since then exist
only to accomodate bugs in one o.s. or another. Zip
has no mode page x0A.
I'm not personally familiar with any web doc of Iomega
vendor-specific opcodes available outside of NDA.
I've heard there is a patent that lays out the concepts
involved: without knowing, I imagine the patent doesn't
specify any particular encoding.
Maybe someone here could point us to some URL's
of people who reverse-engineer Zip drives? I remember
once seeing some good photos of the internals somewhere
out in the I-hate-Iomega space.
Has noone published a read/write-un/protect utility
for Zip drives connected to Linux thru other kinds of
cables? Making the p*sswords interchange well is a
little tricky: you have to construct only p*sswords which
can be typed "anywhere".
x4402 Pat LaVarre of iOmega [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.aol.com/ppaatt/nqjava
>>> Nick Hibma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 03/29/00 03:05AM >>>
The SCSI-3 command spec specifies that you should be able to switch on
software write protect by updating the control page (page 0x0ah) / send
a mode sense command (couldn't be bothered to like exactly which one it
should be).
That's about the best option you have I guess, other than hardware
write protect.
Nick
> > Is there a hardware-way (switch) to write-protect
> > (USB) ZIP drives?
>
> I don't think so.
>
> --
> Vojtech Pavlik
> SuSE Labs
>
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http://www.etla.net/~n_hibma/
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