Loading a Zip drive for DOS

[bullshoot]

I am trying to get an older machine to load an Iomega Zip drive to be used in DOS. I have added a line in autoexec.bat to run the Guest.exe program and on boot-up it tells me....no drive letters were added......run time error R6001....then....-null pointer assignment.
What am i doing wrong here?

The only way i know to get it to work in dos is to load the Guest program thru autoexec.bat as it boots up. I have the cd rom and the mouse loading this way and it works fine.

Anyone got any ideas on this???

Thanks for the help
Bullshoot

 

[GoLdFiNgeR]

you should be able to load guest from a floppy, i do it all the time.

 

[edfair]

Is this an internal or external? IDE or SCSI?
I have internal that loads the drivers in config.sys and autoexec.bat and never have to use guest.
Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[bullshoot]

Thanks for the reply!!!!

This is an internal IDE zip drive. I posted kinda fast this morning and didnt put in some info that i should have.

I want it to work when i boot straight to dos and also work when i go on to windows 98.
any help is appreciated very much.
thanks
william ashe

 

[dinosnake]

A few possibilities:

You may have to use the

LASTDRIVE=?

assignment in config.sys. Replace the ? in the above command with a letter, taking into account how many drives you need. Count up from A. So

LASTDRIVE=G

will allow DOS to assign 7 drive letters.

It could be a driver conflict - after all you are using a CDROM and it is possible that it's driver or MSCDEX are causing problems. Try moving the GUEST.EXE command in autoexec above the line to load MSCDEX, or temporarily REM all lines regarding it out of the config.sys & autoexec.bat files.

What setting is the BIOS set to in the drives section for it? Did you correctly set the Master / Slave jumpers for the unit? (sorry I have to ask).

Once you get things working; if you get to DOS by the 'Restart Computer in MS-DOS mode' from Windows consider removing all entries currently in autoexec.bat to enable the mouse, the CD and the ZIP and moving them to the file

DOSSTART.BAT

in the Windows subdirectory. Windows runs this when told to go into DOS mode automatically. By removing the lines from autoexec.bat the memory they use will be freed up when you are in Windows as they are not needed. Even if you get to DOS another way you can just run the batch from DOS directly to load the drivers and still not suffer the memory loss. Your mileage may vary...

 

[bullshoot]

Thanks for all the help!!!

I got it working by adding the "lastdrive=F line and loading guest with this line....crogra~1\iomega\tools\guest.exe. It loads right up and when i type win and go to windows, all is fine.

I have 2 problems now. One is that the IDE light stays on all the time and the other is that in windows explorer, the zip drive is labled as a 31/2 floppy(F). It works fine, it is just labled wrong. It will not let me chage it in properties.
Any ideas??????
Thanks
William

All help is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[dinosnake]

Windows reporting the ZIP as a floppy is correct - standard Windows IFS (Installable File System) support of the ZIP is to install it as a extra-large floppy. This is to maintain compatability with mounting and unmounting the platter quickly (in other words, if it wasn't installed as a floppy loading and ejecting a disk wouldn't be so easy). The IFS buffers floppies and hard drives differently, and with quick-remove media installing it as a floppy is the best way.

If you want Explorer to show it as a 'ZIP' you have to install the Iomega Tools programs included with the drive. While doing this adds some neat utilities, functions and (as noted) changes the icon and identification in Windows it also adds VxD's, drivers and TSR's into the Windows stack. Meaning that it takes away system resources, memory, and may add conflicts with other devices.

So, in regards to adding the Tools to your system - like my tag line says: Your mileage may vary...