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Zip drive modding

L

LoneWolf

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
3,190
Hi all,

Anybody know of a guide for taking apart internal Zip drives? I'd like to change mine from a green to a blue LED to match the setup I'm doing. I'd also like to do this with the floppy drive if I can, so if anyone knows where I can find the correct type of LEDs in blue, I'd appreciate it.
 
DO NOT do it.

I hear about 5 different stories of people who did it and the drive ceased to operate, even when putting the old LED back in.

On a side note, why are you still using that antequated, slow ass, very unreliable, pile of crap? Want a good reason to get rid of it?

"The Click Of Death"
http://grc.com/tip/codfaq1.htm
 
I do, I bought 3 drives at goodwill computer works in austin for $30, the work good for transferring large files from my home computers to the computers at school.
 
^^ why would simply changing an LED affect anything? If these were first time hobbiests doing this project, I'd bet they screwed something else up.
 
How often do I use my Zip drive? Rarely.

However, I don't just mod my computer, I work in computers. That means having the drives to read all sorts of data so that people who come up to me and say "Man, I had some really important stuff on my BLT disk but the drive went AWOL" can get their stuff back. A lot of users I am responsible for still have a few Zip disks, and this way I can get data off them and then burn that data to CD. I have at least one spare Zip drive I can attempt this mod on, so I'm not worried about killing one of them. Also, I have had multiple internal IDE and SCSI Zip drives. I have only experience the "click of death" with external Zip drives; I've never had a properly treated internal one go bad.

I don't care if someone thinks Zip drives, disks, etc. are crap (personally, I think Iomega is a crappy company but the Zip disk wasn't a bad idea, just marketed and supported in a crappy way), I was asking a mod question of how-to, not "why would I want to". I've now found one guide on doing it on bit-tech's forums. Thanks, everyone.
 
motithejrt said:
Who the fuck uses zip drives anymore anyway?
Click to expand...

you would think noone but sadly thats not true, all of the computer at my college have zip drives installed in them.. pretty dumb if you ask me, but noone asked me lol :)
 
I only made that statement to be sarcastic. I remember the year I graduated from college they had all the computers in the labs outfitted with zip drives... ahhh, how I remember the first days of my mp3 collection
smile.gif
Anyway, do the newer computers available from large companies (dell, gateway, etc.) even offer those things anymore?

CDs are so cheap right now and so much more reliable, although I can see how people use it to move data or sync data with them.
 
I am in the same boat as wolf. the company I support uses so many pieces of crap. Hell we have Jazz drives, zip drives, I even have a production dos 6.22 machine that boots off of a zip drive. That pile of crap is responsible for printing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of checks. pure dung.
 
For all who are interested, the guide I found is here:

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=7272&highlight=zip+led

looks like a PITA to do, but I may do it since I have a spare drive to try it on, and an Edsyn soldering station with some SMT tips I haven't broken out yet...would be better yet if someone knew where I could find SMT LED's like the one I'd be removing from the drive...if anyone knows where (pictures are in the URL above) I'd appreciate it.
 
That pile of crap is responsible for printing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of checks. pure dung.
Click to expand...

Gee.....aren't y'all glad you're not one of the people getting their check printed by that computer?? :p
 
you should just ditch the Zip drive and buy a USB thumb drive..

I know a bit off topic, but it would be worth it.. I promise you..
 
Blue LEDs drain more power then green ones, so you might burn the circuit in your drives, so good luck with all that!
 
Just not to sink your boat or anything, I am one of alot of people that continue to use zip and floppy drives. Hey how many people out there do you know, burn a whole cd for one or two word docs? If they could only use a zip or a floppy disk to store it on. If I have alot of files to take up 700mb I will burn a cd, if I have one or two word docs, small graphic files, I use a floppy. For some items I work in photoshop or illustrator I use a zip.

I have heard of the click of death on zip drives, but I have also heard it on hd's. Whats the difference, they will croak sooner or later. How often do you loose a cd versus a zip cartridge?


I have heard also that you can successfully mod a zip drive, change out the led or other things with it w/o having it die on you.
 
for one or two word docs, I use yahoo's briefcase to upload. works great. going to get a usb thumb drive soon though.
 
SpangeMonkee said:
you should just ditch the Zip drive and buy a USB thumb drive..

I know a bit off topic, but it would be worth it.. I promise you..
Click to expand...

Work gave me a one gigabyte USB thumb drive three weeks ago. Which is great, but isn't capable of copying data off a Zip disk on its own.
 
LoneWolf said:
Work gave me a one gigabyte USB thumb drive three weeks ago. Which is great, but isn't capable of copying data off a Zip disk on its own.
Click to expand...

copy all your zip disks to you HD and then stop using it..
 
SpangeMonkee said:
copy all your zip disks to you HD and then stop using it..
Click to expand...

What part of my recent posts didn't you understand? The part that said "I have users who I support that have Zip disks" part, apparently?

As said before, I'm not asking for advice on how to ditch my zip drive, or feedback on why I shouldn't have it in my system...I know I WANT it in my case, I know WHY I want it in my case, and I WANT to mod it. I've been working in the computer field for ten years now, I think I have a handle on why I still need the Zip drive. Clear enough?
 
Booo zipdrives and all of IO SHMEGMA cause thats all they are worth now these days. Way to sell overpriced, unreliable units.
 
OC_GORK said:
Blue LEDs drain more power then green ones, so you might burn the circuit in your drives, so good luck with all that!
Click to expand...

He'll probably need to just get another resistor, depending on the voltage the Blue LED requires.
 
I can not believe how many people CAN'T read the post, I also have just about every kind of drive in my main work box, including a Colorado tape drive, these are not everyday use items, they are needed to save customers data, the box is a working tool and capable of doing everything needed to make it make money.

try LSDiodes they carry alot of different sizes and colors. nice to work with bought a bunch from them last year when I was modding everything in the den :D
 
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