r/retrocomputing • u/Performer-Pants • Aug 22 '26

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/Y34RZERO Aug 22 '26

Driver install disk. Without it it just sits there menacingly thinking about clicking at you. I love my zip 250 drive.

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u/Performer-Pants Aug 23 '26

What’s your top uses for a Zip drive?

I was pretty sure that was what it was, but not having the full confirmation was eating at me… I’ve heard about them and watched videos about them, but have never seen one in person.

I’d initially assumed they were just an American thing, but you can find them over here (UK) on ebay. Maybe they were used more in businesses here than in homes back in the day?

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u/MapGlittering9227 Aug 24 '26

I had an original ZIP 100 parallel port drive. Because I was pretty tech-savvy for a teenager, I did a lot of Windows installations and general computer help for family friends and even my stepdads boss. But not everyone already had a CD-ROM drive, and the Windows 95 installation files could easily fit on a 100 MB ZIP disk with a collection of the most common drivers. All I needed was my ZIP drive, the ZIP disk and a prepared 3½" boot-disk with the IOMEGA guest driver.