Though I constantly comment on all financial and or business/econ issues I am a not that computer literate and need help. I have a Zip Drive 100 external and wish to connect it to an IMAC in my office to back up some information. The ports just don't connect. The Zip has a large rectangle printer port hook up which is simply not present on the IMAC. The Imac is about 2 years old and PuRple! HELP!
You'll need some sort of converter (assuming that it will connect even then) -- I think USB and IEEE 1394 are the only kind of ports that the imac have. You may be able to find some sort of converter from parallel (the type you have right now) to USB, but I doubt it . . . the thing is, even if you do find a converter, it doesn't necessarily mean that the drive will be recognized and work. Sometimes it will, but it's kindof a crap-shoot. I dunno, look around and you may find something.
In order to make this work, the first thing you need to do is change the color of your IMAC from Purple to Teal... then we can talk. hehe jk sounds like you need a real laptop, not one of those candy colored ICRAPS! here come the mac addicts
This *might* work. Its a parallel to USB adapter, but the page only details it working with printers, not zip drives. You should probably email their sales team to double check. http://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&id=ID62213&partno=70601&search=PRINTER&rsite=www.cablesusa.com&rcode=
I'd suggest backing it up on a network drive or something. Back it up on the internet -- there are secure sites where you can purchase backup space for this very instance.
I don't think this will work. The port on the Zip drive is probably a DB25 parallel connector, not a IEEE1284 connector. BTW, Khan, according to Iomega, the parallel Zip drive is incompatible with Macintosh and iMac computers. Their "recommendation" is to use the USB model...wow thanks. If you really want to back up to Zip cartridges, I'd look for one on Ebay- they can be had pretty cheap (plus you can probably sell yours). Another alternative would be to get a external (USB) CD-RW drive... x34
Parallel to USB converters won't work for a Zip drive. You'll have to get a Firewire or USB Zip. I have one of these: <img src="http://www.iomega.com/media/direct/images/products/image_detail/det_31772_252a.jpg"> sitting on my desktop. It is a hard drive that has removable 10GB and 20GB cartridges. It is firewire so it is very fast and needs no external power (the computer does that). The cartridges are pricey, but one 20GB and one 10GB are great for long-term and temporary storage. Plus, the thing looks cool and takes up almost no space.
