Zip Drive 250, do I have any options?

Sharp10r

I need to get my data off of a Zip 250 disc. I bought off of Craigslist a Zip 250 drive with a serial input, I thought I had a serial port, but it turns out hte old laptop has a printer port (that worked with the Zip 100 drive).
So- do adapters work for this sort of thing?
Is there an office supply store that has computer labs?
What are my options as to how I get my data off of this obsolete piece of junk?

Dava

You can get a serial to parallel adapter, but they're dang expensive. You'll have an easier time finding a serial to USB adapter, which are only slightly less expensive (average $30). Sorry, keed.

DrFrylock

Wait, when did Iomega make a serial ZIP drive of any size? Serial would be far too slow. Hell, the parallel versions crawled. They made USB Zip drives - are you saying your laptop doesn't have a USB port? What does the connector look like? Are you sure you don't mean firewire or USB or SCSI?

Sharp10r

Hmm maybe I mean SCSI? Yeah, I mean SCSI, sorry. Theres a symbol of a diamond with a line in it above the port. It looks like a printer port (in fact on the old laptop I have, it fits in the printer port.)

DrFrylock

Yeah, although there is a DB-25 SCSI port that looks an awfully lot like a parallel port, hooking a SCSI device to a parallel port is generally a fairly bad idea due to voltages on certain lines being completely wrong. If I recall right, you risk damaging the device and/or the computer.

SCSI was expensive and never easy to get working. You have a few options here:

• Get a SCSI host adapter, plus any needed cables and port adapters, for your PC
• Get a USB-to-SCSI adapter, but these can get expensive and you can probably get a USB Zip 250 drive for less
• Find somebody who has a computer with a SCSI port. Most old Macintoshes (like from 1997 and earlier) had one.
• Visit a service bureau or a Kinkos or someplace where you can borrow the use of a Zip 250 drive.