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Tips
& Tricks
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Sharing
an Iomega Zip with your ASR-X and
Macintosh June
17, 2001 ~ I finally got wise and decided to create
a separate Extension set for my Mac (using
Extension Manager) that excludes the 'Iomega
Driver' extension. Excluding 'Iomega Driver', along
with the 'Toast CD Reader' extension, permits me to
read/write from the ASR-X Pro to my shared SCSI
peripherals without the volumes mounting within the
Finder. But
what about those times when I *want* to mount a Zip
disk in the Finder? Well, under the preceding
scenario I'd have to switch Extension sets and
restart the Mac wouldn't I? Pain in the neck isn't
it? The
IomegaWare Installer includes 'Iomega Tools' along
with some nonessential applications. One of these
"nonessentials" is 'Iomega Guest'. 'Iomega Guest'
allows you to unmount and mount Zip disks from the
the Finder regardless of whether the 'Iomega
Driver' is active/installed. See where I'm going
with this? ;-) Iomega Guest is typically used in
those instances when you attach your Zip drive to a
system other than your own and don't necessarily
want/need to install the full IomegaWare
package. I
ran the IomegaWare installer, tossing out the
unnecessary apps, such as FindIt , CopyMachine, and
the duplicate copy of Tools, but retained Iomega
Guest. I made an alias of Iomega Guest placing it
into my Desk Accessories Folder (within the Apple
Menu items folder). I can now use Iomega Guest to
unmount/mount ASR-X Zip volumes as needed - without
having to switch Extension sets and Restart. Oh
happy day - no more missing ASR-X files clobbered
by the Finder! It's not a perfect solution but at
least it helps me share ASR-X Zip volumes without
unnecessary, and unwanted, interaction from the
Finder! WARNING:
the default install of Mac OS 9 will create a
folder named 'Iomega' within the 'Apple Extras'
folder. The Iomega folder will contain 'Iomega
Drive Options' along with 'Iomega Tools'. Running
the IomegaWare Installer will install these same
applications within the 'Tools' folder of the
'IomegaWare' folder. You might want to verify which
directory contains the most current version of
these tools and possibly disable or remove the
older versions for compatibility sake. I don't know
that this would create a problem either way but at
least you've been warned. You
can download the current release of IomegaWare from
the Iomega
Software Download
page. Last I checked, Iomega Guest was still
bundled with IomegaWare. If
you just want a copy of Iomega Guest without having
to run the IomegaWare installer - you download a
copy here.
June
3, 2000 ~ Hindsight is twenty/twenty. I recently
lost three hours of work saved to a Zip drive. This
should serve as a *reminder* to make a spare copy
of your work. I'd
imported a number of single hits from a Sample CD
to my X-Pro and made certain to save them at
regular intervals. I'd reloaded them after clearing
the contents of the X-Pro's memory and everything
was fine. Until I mounted and unmounted the X-Pro
owned Zip disk from the Mac desktop. Mistake! The
Mac apparently took ownership of the zip disk as
soon as I opened from the Finder - clobbering the
new, unknown to the Mac, directories I'd created
from the X-Pro :-/ The moral of this story is:
Complete you ASR-X session, save your data and
unmount the Zip disk from the Mac desktop. Then if
you want to view the contents of your ASR-X Zip
disk - mount the volume on the Mac desktop and open
it - you should be okay. Whatever you do - don't
open it from the Mac desktop while your session is
in progress!
August
1999 ~ The IomegaWare Installer included with your
Zip SCSI drive installs a program named Findit in
the Iomega Tools Folder on your hard drive. Findit
allows you to easily browse, catalog, and find
files on all of your removable disks.
Unfortunately, it has a tendency to crash your
Macintosh whenever you use the 'Put Away' command
to eject an ASR-X volume mounted on the desktop
:-( You
have two choices: One, use the Extension Manager to
create an alternate set with Findit turned off - or
- Two, Delete FindIt - if you don't use it. 90% of
my Zip drive use is for back-up, 5% for archiving
'stuff' I've downloaded from the Internet, and 5%
is used for the ASR-X Pro. I chose to delete but,
in hindsight, an alternate startup set in Extension
Manager might have been prudent. Friendly
Reminder: Keep two set of back-up media on hand. I
got lucky and was able to retrieve my data from a
Zip disk gone bad. Don't push your luck as I
did! |
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