PALMZIP.SYS

PalmZIP is a device driver, which enables the use of Iomega's ZIP-drive together with a variety of DOS-compatible palmtop computers, even if Iomega's driver won't work.

Handicaps of Iomega's driver:

• Requires DOS 4.x or later
• Requires 80286-CPU or better
• High memory consumption
• Long delay during boot process

• DOS 2.x or later
• 8086-CPU or better
• Parallel port (Standard port is sufficient, bidirectional supported)
• Iomega ZIP-100-drive, parallel port version. The ZIPplus-drive and late ZIP-100-drives are NOT supported. Please check if your drive works with the demo version of my driver. See also Jeffrey Hayes' notes about palmZIP's compatibility with his computers and drives.

• Disk formats: Works with normal ZIP disks under DOS 4.x or higher. Under older DOS-versions, the special formats "3xFAT12" or "3xFAT16" must be used to divide one ZIP disk into 3 partitions of 32 MByte each.
• Size of the driver: approx. 3 KByte. In addition, the utility programs ZIPMAN (for format and configuration) and ZIPCOPY take about 2 KByte each.
• Availability:
  Version 1.10 since August 1998,
  Version 1.20 since September 1998,
  Version 1.21 since April 1999,
  Version 1.22 since November 2003 (bugfixes in palmzip.sys and zipcopy.com).
  A free DEMO-VERSION is available: PALMDEMO.ZIP (32K). Please report your experience so that I can complete the compatibility list!
• Cost: 8 € (via E-Mail) or 12 € (disk and printed manual, incl. p&p for Germany)

  Pay me securely with any major credit card through PayPal!

• Please order your licensed copy via e-mail:

You can download a free service pack which contains add-ons and updates for the utilities that come with palmZIP:

• ZIPMAN 1.40 (Format and configuration tool)
• MDEXTERN 1.01 (for Atari Portfolio only)
• ZIPCOPY 1.1 (copies complete PofoZip-partitions within one disk)
• LPT_TEST 0.20 (checks if palmZIP can use its bidirectional mode)

How to access partitioned disks from your desktop PC:

Iomega's driver assigns only ONE drive letter to the ZIP-drive. Therefore only the first partition can be accessed through it. Stefan Matthaeus got around this problem by replacing SCSIDRV.SYS by ASPIDISK.SYS from Adaptec. The corresponding lines in CONFIG.SYS could look like this:

DEVICE = ASPIPPM1.SYS 049 FILE=ECR.ILM SPEED=10
DEVICE = ASPIDISK.SYS /D /R3

On reboot, three new drive letters will be created which correspond to the partitions of the ZIP-disk.

How to access partitioned disks from Linux:

• The kernel module called ppa needs to be loaded. If your drive requires the newer imm driver, it is not compatible with palmZIP!
• The three partitions can then be mounted using the devices /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3 and /dev/sda4.

How to access partitioned disks from an Atari ST computer:

Atari users can access partitioned Zip-disks like described in the following German article edited by : ATARIZIP.TXT

Hint: Mobile power supply using NiCd-batteries

In addition to palmZIP, PofoZip has been developped as a driver for the Atari Portfolio.

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