How do I use a MAC formatted ZIp disk in a PC

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SAMMY FINKELMAN

I have three ZIP disks are formatted for MACs. How do I reformat
them for PCs? (Using Windows 95b or DOS)
 
SAMMY said:
I have three ZIP disks are formatted for MACs. How do I reformat
them for PCs? (Using Windows 95b or DOS)
Click to expand...


format x: (where x is the drive letter)
or right-click on the drive in windows explorer and click Format.


-WD
 
I have three ZIP disks are formatted for MACs. How do I reformat
them for PCs? (Using Windows 95b or DOS)
Click to expand...

Use Iomega's software to long format them. Do not format them with
DOS or Windows format commands.

If you don't have any Iomega software, you can use this link to
download (about 4MB) a version which should be good for Win95B.
ftp://ftp.iomega.com/english.public/win9x_iom113_en.exe
 
(e-mail address removed) (SAMMY FINKELMAN) wrote:

SF> I have three ZIP disks are formatted for MACs. How do I reformat
SF> them for PCs? (Using Windows 95b or DOS)

Deep One:

D1> Use Iomega's software to long format them. Do not format them with
D1> DOS or Windows format commands.

I didn't really have any (besides what I us to read them)

I tried the FORMAT command in the DOS box and it worked. I thought maybe
that wouldn't work, being as this was an irregular drive, biuut it did,
and it writes and reads files. The only thing is, I didn't get 100
megabytes, but only 98 megabytes.

Formatting 94M
Format complete.

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)? Feb-29 MAC to PC

98,355,200 bytes total disk space
98,355,200 bytes available on disk

2,048 bytes in each allocation unit.
48,025 allocation units available on disk.

Volume Serial Number is 0D4D-12EC


A:\>dir d:

Volume in drive D is FEB-29 MAC
Volume Serial Number is 0D4D-12EC
Directory of D:\

File not found
98,355,200 bytes free

D1> If you don't have any Iomega software, you can use this link to
D1> download (about 4MB) a version which should be good for Win95B.
D1> ftp://ftp.iomega.com/english.public/win9x_iom113_en.exe

To do all that I would have to make a special trip to the library, hope
the drive there does not spoil my 3.5 inch floppy disk and use Woindows
95, which I can't right now because my hard drive is too full.

When it says WIN9x that probably means that it is good both for Windows
95 and Windows 98. There probably never was a special Windows 95 version
- or maybe the Windows 95 version, perhaps improved slightly, is now
called Windows 9x.

What is the reason for not using the FORMAT command (aside from the
possibility of making a mistake?)
 
SAMMY FINKELMAN wrote:

SF> I have three ZIP disks are formatted for MACs. How do I reformat >
SF> them for PCs? (Using Windows 95b or DOS)

Will Dormann:

WD> format x: (where x is the drive letter)
WD> or right-click on the drive in windows explorer and click Format.

I used the DOS command. I was not expecting something so simple to work.
Thank you.

(although I actually tried this out before I read the message)
 
(e-mail address removed) (SAMMY FINKELMAN) wrote:

[snip]
I tried the FORMAT command in the DOS box and it worked. I thought maybe
that wouldn't work, being as this was an irregular drive, biuut it did,
and it writes and reads files. The only thing is, I didn't get 100
megabytes, but only 98 megabytes.

Formatting 94M
Format complete.

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)? Feb-29 MAC to PC

98,355,200 bytes total disk space
98,355,200 bytes available on disk
Click to expand...

It should be 100,431,872. I wouldn't trust that disk to function
properly. Format it with Iomega's software as soon as possible.
Hopefully, that will return it to normal.

[snip]
When it says WIN9x that probably means that it is good both for Windows
95 and Windows 98. There probably never was a special Windows 95 version
- or maybe the Windows 95 version, perhaps improved slightly, is now
called Windows 9x.
Click to expand...

9x means 95 or 98. Iomega's software used to be called Tools95.
After Win98 came out, they changed the name to IomegaWare.
What is the reason for not using the FORMAT command (aside from the
possibility of making a mistake?)
Click to expand...

This is from Iomega's REFMAN.EXE file (it comes with their DOS
software):

Because DOS treats removable media drives like floppy drives
rather than like hard drives, some DOS commands (FORMAT,
DISKCOPY, and FDISK) do not work as expected with removable
disks. Iomega SCSI provides substitute utilities for FORMAT
and DISKCOPY which should be used with all removable disks.
FDISK and DISKCOPY should never be used on any removable
disk.

Later, it says:

The DOS FORMAT command can be used to format removable
disks that have been formatted previously using the
Iomega SCSI Disk Format utility. DOS FORMAT cannot
perform a surface verify on removable disks, so if a
disk has been generating errors, you should use the
Iomega SCSI Disk Format utility with the Surface Verify
option to format the disk. Do not use the DOS FORMAT
command when preparing a removable SCSI boot disk; use
the Iomega SCSI Disk Format utility with the Copy
System option.

I think problems can occur because Iomega uses a proprietary method of
handling bad sectors which is not recognized by non-Iomega software.
Special disk information is stored in the "Z-Tracks" which non-Iomega
software doesn't know about. If your disk had already had a proper
Iomega PC format on it, then you probably could have used a plain DOS
FORMAT command safely. But since it was Mac-formatted, the FORMAT
command apparently had to do something which caused problems with the
Zip disk. I'm afraid I don't know all the technical details of the
situation.
 
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