[geeks] ZIP drive data recovery

[hike]

They make Serial-to-USB adapters.  Do they make Parallel-to-USB adapters?
I remember seeing parallel-to-serial adapters.  IMHO, if the data is
important, it would be worth the expense.

Any mainstream Linux should recognize a parallel.  I don't recall support
of parallel being dropped since parallel is still in use.

>From my experience, the Zip drive and disks should work if stored
properly.  Our local Craigslist still has people selling Zip drives and
disks--if yours doesn't work you might be able to pick one up.

On Sat, Jan 24, 2015 at 1:27 AM, Dan Duncan <danduncan at gmail.com> wrote:

> I need to recover some data from about ten recently obtained 100MB Iomega
> ZIP disks.  (So, up to 1 GB of data)
>
> I have a parallel port ZIP drive in a box in the attic.  It worked 10 years
> ago when I last used it.  Is it likely to still work, or do they not age
> well?  (Especially when stored in an attic in Colorado rather than a
> basement)
>
> Ideally, I'd like to do this:  Dig up a system with a parallel port and USB
> (I think I have one in the attic!), plug in a thumb drive (1GB or larger)
> and the ZIP drive, boot a live linux image (CD or from the thumb drive
> itself, preferably text mode and not GUI), and just mount the ZIP disks and
> copy the contents to the thumb drive.  Hopefully I don't really need a hard
> drive or installed OS, as long as I can find a bootable linux version that
> supports both the parallel port ZIP drive and USB thumb drive.
>
> Assuming my drive still works, any pointers on what version of linux is
> likely to support both parallel port ZIP drives and USB mass storage right
> out of the box?
>
> I actually bought this ZIP drive 20 years ago so I didn't have to deal with
> multiple floppies when frequently reinstalling and updating slackware.  I
> would probably just re-create the boot and root floppies for an old
> slackware version except they wouldn't support the thumb drive.  I guess I
> could toss an old IDE drive into the system and use slackware to copy from
> the ZIP disk to the HD, and then use another method to get the data from
> the HD to the USB stick.
>
> Should I have snagged a later model USB ZIP drive when I had the chance?
> Yes, I should have.  If this doesn't pan out, would someone like to loan me
> a USB ZIP drive?  I'll pay shipping both ways and the return package would
> have ten blank 100MB ZIP disks which you could enjoy.  :)
>
> --
> Dan Duncan
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