Note: Iomega's instructions for the Zip drive say you should power up the Zip drive after powering up the computer, but before the operating system begins to load. It then goes on to say that, in practice, the best thing to do is to put both the computer and the Zip drive on the same AC switch, and power them both up and down with that switch. I STRONGLY recommend your following those instructions during Zip drive installation activities. Simply rebooting the computer may give erroneous results and lead you on a wild goose chase. After it's installed and has been working for several days, such rigorous procedures are usually not necessary.
Power down the computer and the Zip Drive, then screw the Zip drive's cable securely into the computer's and Zip drive's parallel ports. Simultaneously power up the computer and Zip drive, and after Windows 95 loads, run Setup off the Zip Drive's installation diskette. Setup will first run Guest95.Exe from the Zip Drive's installation diskette. (If you're lucky) Guest95 will assign a drive letter to the Zip drive, after which you can use it like any other drive. You then take the Windows 95 Zip media installation disk and install it to your hard disk. The last step is to use the Parallel Port Accelerator, PPAOPT.EXE, to allow as much throughput as your particular parallel port will take. However, my experience is that usually Guest95 will fail to find the zip drive and assign the letter the first time.
Next, "pin down" the drive letters for drives hosting the compressed drives. Go into Drivespace (Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Drivespace). In the Drivespace program, select the one host drive, then click "Advanced" from the menu bar, and "Change Letter" from the dropdown. Set the letter to make room for the Zip drive. Repeat with each host as necessary. It may be necessary to insert a "LASTDRIVE" command in Config.sys, I'm not sure. After you're done, close out all programs, power down both the computer and the Zip, then power them both up at the same time.. Run Guest95 again and see if it assigns a drive. If it does, reboot and test several times to make sure there's no problem. If there are any problems, continue with the troubleshooting.
Make sure the Zip Drive cable is securely screwed into both your computer's parallel port and the Zip drive's connector. Make sure NO cable is connected to the Zip drive's pass-through connector (we'll add the printer later). Then power down both, and power them up at the same time. If the problem goes away, test through several power-up sequences. If that cured the problem, power everything down and connect the printer to the Zip drive's pass through connection. Test both Zip drive operation and printing. If the drive works fine but the printer doesn't, and if the parallel port's configured as ECP, go into BIOS setup and reconfigure it as EPP. If there are problems with either the ZIP drive or the printing, continue troubleshooting.
If there are still problems at this point, go into BIOS setup and make
sure the parallel port drive isn't configured as ECP. If it is, change
it to EPP. Then follow the instructions as outlined in footnote section
Dumbing
Down Your BIOS. Save the BIOS configuration, then power everything
down and up at the same time, and once again run Guest95.Exe. If it still
doesn't find a drive letter at this point, you'll need professional help.
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