USB Zip 250

[Dazed]

I'm new to Linux, and currently have Slackware 9.0. I was wondering how i would go about using my USB Zip 250 drive with it. If you can help me out i would appreciate it. The simpler the instruciton the better. Thanks

[Dolda2000]

I believe that USB Zip drives use the USB Mass Storage standard protocol. Someone who has used slackware will have to help you with the best "standardized" setup, but I can help you with using it manually. Just run these commands (as root):

modprobe usb-storage sd_mod
mkdir /mnt/zip
mount /dev/sda /mnt/zip

I don't know whether Zip disks have partitioning tables on them. If they have, you'll have to mount /dev/sda1 instead of /dev/sda. The mkdir command only hasto be run the first time.
When you're done with the disk, unmount it with "umount /mnt/zip". It's important that you don't just take the disk out, since the caches have to be flushed to it before.

[Dazed]

I tried what you said, but i'm still not sure if i was doing it properly. I tried to follow some of the stuff in this guide http://www.omniflashproducts.com/dow...structions.PDF. I'm not really sure if following that worked. I'm new to Linux so i really have a hard time telling if what i've tried has helped at all. Thank you.

[Dolda2000]

Oh sorry. You know, I'm so used to this that I thought it was obvious. After you run those commands, check in /mnt/zip and see if the contents of your Zip disk is there.

[Dazed]

Ok, i'm getting closer. I heard it access the drive this time, the spinning sound. Now after i type "mount /dev/sdb /mnt/zip" i get the message "mount: you must specify the filesystem type", what exactly does that mean?. Thanks

[Dazed]

is there a certain way i need to format this disk? Through fdisk?

[Dolda2000]

It probably means that you'll have to try /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1 (whichever you used), instead of just /dev/sda or /dev/sdb. It's probably because Zip disks use partition tables.

[Dazed]

OK, it's working great now. Thanks for all your help.