USB Zip Drive 250

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I'm copying files off old zip 100 disks to burn to CDs. I'm running Mavericks and I'm able to mount all my disks and see all my files.

After copying, I want to erase the disks but they're all mounting like a CD (un-writable). The disks are formatted Mac OS Standard.

I can't figure out why they're mounting read-only and why I can't write to them natively.
Anyone have any idea that I'm obviously missing??

Thanks,
J
 

chscag

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Welcome to our forums.

I can't figure out why they're mounting read-only and why I can't write to them natively.
Anyone have any idea that I'm obviously missing??

Make sure you have the read only slider or tab in the correct position (read/write) so that you can write to the Zip disks.
 
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Welcome to our forums.



Make sure you have the read only slider or tab in the correct position (read/write) so that you can write to the Zip disks.

No write-protect sliders or tabs on zip disks. Thanks though!
 

chscag

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Sorry about that, you're correct. I was thinking about something else. It's been ages since I used Zip disks with my PC (never used them with my Mac).

What do you intend to do with the disks and the drive after copying all your data from them? If you no longer need the disks you can just destroy them. I'm assuming you want to erase them?
 
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What do you intend to do with the disks and the drive after copying all your data from them? If you no longer need the disks you can just destroy them. I'm assuming you want to erase them?

A friend with a really old mac wants them. I could us his system to erase them at some point but wanted to do it myself as I copy the stuff off them.

The PC formatted (FAT16) ones I have work fine r&w. Just the mac formatted (Mac OS Standard) ones show up read-only and that makes absolutely no sense to me.
 
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Can you right click on the disks and give yourself read & write permission?
 

chscag

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Just the mac formatted (Mac OS Standard) ones show up read-only and that makes absolutely no sense to me.

I'm thinking that if those Zip disks were Mac pre-formatted they were likely done using an older scheme which is no longer readable. Some folks have had trouble reading older floppies because of the same reason.

Just give the disks to your friend and let him erase them from his PC. Unless of course you have data on them that is sensitive to you.

I remember from my PC days what a headache those zip disks were. I used both USB and SCSI drives back then and was always replacing the disks because of the "click of death" or some other reason. I finally gave up on them and got rid of my Iomega drives.
 
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Solved. Hope this helps someone else. Forgot that Macintosh OS Standard is really HFS and was able to find out HFS+ can not write to HFS, it can only read from it. My solution was to copy off my files then reformat the zip disks to HFS+ which does work under MacOS 8.1, 9 & X.
 

Slydude

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Nice work. I don't think I 'd have ever remembered that. I've got some Zip cartridges that are probably of the same vintage as yours. I'll have to file this away for future reference.

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