IDE to USB?

I had to disconnect my internal IDE Zip drive to install a CD burner. Is it possible to adapt the Zip to USB so I can use it again? I e-mailed Iomega support about it and they said no, but I'd like a second opinion. Thanks.

 

I have never heard of it! Probably expensive if it is.

But!

The easy answer to your quandry is a new IDE controller.

The Maxstor Ultra DMA 133 is one of the best and fastest. Will install and allow you to still use the onboard controllers.

If you did this you should put your HD on the new controller and the zip and cd on the other older ones.

Besides this could you not slave the cd from the ZIP or vice versi?

Mike

 

Thanks mflynn. I have both the CD burner and a DVD-ROM on the secondary, and of course the HD on the primary...no more room for another drive. I tried slaving the Zip off the HD, but it didn't work.

 

OK!

Then consider this.

If you could have slaved it it may have slowed down the HD. This is possible because some onboard IDE controlers will slow down to the speed of the slowest device on the cable.

You probly don't know the specs on the onboard controller to know if this applies in your case.

Additionally you will have performance problems with the 2 CD's on the same cable if you try to copy directly from the CD to the CDR. Or play music or install something from the CD while burning a CDR.

Best solution is the new controller then you could eleminate all slaving.

Using the Maxstor controller will additionally speed up the HD.

This would be the way I would do it.

Put the HD and CDR on the new controller, the zip and DVD on the onboard controller.

This would give you back your zip and increase the performance of you HD and CDR!

Mike

 

No reason I can see why this wouldn't work with a Zip. I use mine for CD-RW and HD (not cheap, though!):


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?sku=A225-4000 P

 

If you have USB 2.0 or Firewire ports take a look at this

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have USB 2.0 or Firewire ports, and don't want to put too much money into this older (PII-450) box. I'm not very familiar with hardware installation except for the basic IDE devices. I briefly talked with a guy yesterday who said I could install another IDE controller in an open PCI slot to support more drives. Is this what you're suggesting with the Maxtor mflynn?

 

That is 10-4!

Keep in mind that the new controller has to co-exist with the onboard you allready have.

Some of the cheap basic IDE controllers will not do this yo need to confirm this before yo but one. The Maxstor will!

Thanks to the others that responded with the correct answer to your question. I knew of these devices but was thinking that you asked for just a cable that converted this, inside the cpu.


Mike