Tom asked me to pass this message along to the list, so here it is. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 06:38:37 + 12 From: Tom Butz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: (Fwd) ZIP-drive (parellel) under Debian
------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: Self <midland> To: Dale Scheetz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ZIP-drive (parellel) under Debian Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 20:43:45 Hi Dale, would you please pass on the following. Thanks, Tom. *** The parallel ZIP-drive works without a hitch: Debian recognises it as /dev/sda4, in fact it is a hard-disk. MS-DOS thinks it's a big floppy though, according to MSD.EXE after I ran GUEST.EXE (off the support floppy that came with the drive). Debian doesn't require any support from MS-DOS, it just runs like any other hard-disk (use 'fdisk' to set up the partition-table, and then 'mkfs' to create a file-system). A warning, however: do not set your parallel port to 'Enhanced Parallel Port' - leave it set to 'Standard Parallel Port', otherwise you will have time-out problems formatting it under Debian (my experience). (Might be coincidental). Speedwise Debian would beat MS-DOS hands down anyway, and shouldn't really need that last bit of tweaking. If you format it under MS-DOS you can still mount it under Debian: it doesn't complain about the lack of a partition-table. Read and write work like a dream. Thanks for such an excellent system. Application note: under Linux you can use one task to back up your MS-DOS things on a ZIP-drive, while doing some typing/translating in another task. Try the same running MS-DOS... ***