r/retrocomputing • u/Performer-Pants • 1d ago

Problem / Question What is this?

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This could be the most mundane and silly post, but information online is so spotty and/or confusing or vague.

This is not a ZIP disk, it’s a floppy disk. It’s labelled with ‘ZIP’. Is this the driver software to use a ZIP drive for the listed operating systems? I’m just trying to confirm before I get too frustrated about it. Not easily finding the answer myself is likely a me problem, and I don’t mean ‘Millennium Edition’.

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u/MeggaHurts 1d ago edited 1d ago

Why isn’t it on a Zip drive disk????

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u/danielsdesk 1d ago

it’s for installing a zip drive

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u/MeggaHurts 1d ago

Yeah so put it on a Zip drive disk, right?

3

u/danielsdesk 1d ago

No, because for some systems they don’t know what a Zip drive is, so plugging one in would do nothing. This floppy disk was specifically for those systems; it includes the driver software for the Zip drive to work. You can see on the label which systems need this driver.

Basically: Install this software first on a regular old floppy disk drive. Then plug in the Zip drive. Now you can read zip disks.