XP and Iomega -- Bad Mix?

[modraker]

My Iomega Zip 100 Atapi/Ide internal drive, which worked flawlessly in Win98 and Win2000, is now near impossible to operate in WinXP. The drivers are supposed to be part of XP, but the Zip Drive is so slow and many times does not finish copying files before it hangs up.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[DilLy]

Well I have a external Zip250 USB. At first when I got XP and installed the drive I made the mistake of then installing the "latest" drivers off hte IOMEGA site. Big mistake. I then just used the ones that came with it and all was much better.

the thing is I thought it was still slower and quirkier than on ME/98. I found that right clicking the drive, going to "properties", then choosing the "hardware" tab and selecting the Zip drive, then going to "policies" and select "Optimize for Performance" (as opposed to Optimize for quick removal) and maker sure "Enable Write Caching on the Disk" is also checked. This made things about 7 times faster. Make sure to read what each one does, though, so you are informed.

[ssahl]

I have an external Iomega 100MB Zip drive that uses the parallel port, I use it on both win98 & winXP
I used the same drivers (download from CNET or tucows) on both OS's and didnt have problems either way. Having the 'enable write caching on the disk' checked is a must though, otherwise were talking floppy speed.

[DilLy]

ssahl:

I was wondering if, by chance, you might know why my "Enable Write Caching" check box is mysteriously grayed out now.
It was checked before. (and yes it is set for performance, right now)

I was wondering if it may be a service or something that enables that checkbox to be active.

anyone know

[shadow_man]

Usually when greyed out it means that it is not supported.

I have a internal Iomega Zip 100 and no problems with XP.

To fine the write cashing, right click on the removable disk in 'My Computer', then the 'Hardware' tab, highlite the Iomega Zip Drive and click on properties and then the 'Polices' tab.

shadow_man

[alexmacdonald]

Had an IDE zip 100 in XP, could not get it to work ever, was an issue with VIA chipset though, not XP. Switched to an IDE 250 and works perfectly. M$ decided to disable the write caching option for removeable drives, It may re-appear in SP1, but they wont confirm.

[DilLy]

Shadowman please read the whole thread.

Alexmacdonald: was this issued in a windows update? because I definitely had it checked before, so it WAS initially supported. How stupid they would disable such a thing. Why would they do that? BUggy maybe? If anyone knows more about this pease tell.

[modraker]

My IOmega Zip100 "Policies" tab is completely grayed out, with the exception of the last phrase which reads: "This device does not allow write caching to be disabled. A power outage or equipment failure might result in data loss or corruption."

I do have a Via chipset. So like alexmacdonald, I'll probably have to buy a Zip 250.

Thanks for the input, folks.

[ssahl]

You know I checked the settings for the zip drive on XP and it's greyed out for me too. Though I cant think why I would want to change it. I also have the VIA chipset, but as I said above my Iomega hooks up through the parallel port. I have not had any problems with using this drive though.

[shifty]

Same problem with my zip 100 hooked up to my parellel port.I have xp with a VIA chipset and it slows the system to a crawl.I downloaded the xp driver from Iomega I put the zip back on my other machine until I can find a fix.The windows 98 driver wouldn't work.