Zip! 95 discussion

[XPUser2600]

Hello there.

I'm working on a project called Zip! 95

This aims to make a Zip disk have a perfectly usable version of Windows 95.

I saw someone did that back in the day so I tried to replicate but whatever I tried failed.

Currently the Zip disk has Windows 95 files on it but attempting to boot from it fails with "type the name of the command interpreter" error

I think Zip disk drivers must be injected so the driver loads BEFORE Windows loads...

i need help.

[Tripredacus]

Despite not ever being able to replicate a disk failure by running a program from a disk (UT from Jaz 1 GB) it was always the official stance at Iomega that such things shouldn't be done. It is based on the fact that the disks and the drives fail more often when doing so. I hope you have a large stockpile of disks and drives at hand.

PS: also be aware that if such a project were to be attempted, you are likely going to need to make it support all of the Zip drives, including the IDE, USB, Parallel and SCSI models. Or at worst (now) posting about which of these types you are trying to boot with, since you left that out. During my time at Iomega, I do not recall anyone getting an OS to run from a disk, only programs and such programs were extremely slow. The previous example I gave of Unreal Tournament on a 1 GB Jaz disk was run in Windows 2000 and only would run at 10 fps. I do not recall what interface the Jaz drive used. If you do end up running into performance issues, you may want to look into running on a ramdisk.

[jaclaz]

"Zip disk" is meaningless in the context of "drivers".

There used to be 5 (at least[1]) ZIP disk drives, with different interfaces (and obviously difference drivers were needed for them):
1) Parallel <- normally NOT bootable
2) SCSI
3) IDE
4) ATAPI (almost same as above)
5) USB

The "type the name of the command interpreter" error you are having (I presume it to be in text mode) is coming from the underlying DOS, it happens well before the Windows 95 (the GUI part) loads (and thus the needed drivers).

Is the error you are having similar to this screenshot, right?

https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35451

If this is the case it is happening at a time when the boot is from the disk supported by the BIOS, no driver is needed/in use at this time.

Either you have command.com missing or - for some reasons - the DOS cannot access the ZIP disk as C:\ (or as another drive letter, if it is not partitioned it may be A:\).

This may have several reasons behind, a common one (but again it may depend on which specific Zip disk drive you are using) is the way the disk has been partitioned (ZIP disk "standard" was an active partition in fourth MBR partition table entry) or "not partitioned" (formatted as superfloppy), and in the specific BIOS you have and how it behaves in these cases, additionally ZIP disks used to have a "peculiar" CHS geometry, which may or may not be involved in the issue.

It is also possible that again for *some reasons* the SYS.COM didn't transfer COMMAND.COM properly or it (or its directory entry) is corrupted.

some related to ZIP disks info:

https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/zip/zip-1.html

Maybe if you provide some details about the exact hardware you are using and the exact way you prepared the disk, a solution or a workaround could be suggested.

jaclaz

 

[1] a more detailed, though not necessarily complete, list is here:

http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=12436&p=108810

Edited January 27, 2023 by jaclaz

[XPUser2600]

I'm doing this within 86Box, cuz i have no actual hardware for this.

Idk what is 86Box's Zip drive then

[jaclaz]

14 hours ago, XPUser2600 said:

I'm doing this within 86Box, cuz i have no actual hardware for this.

Idk what is 86Box's Zip drive then

Not to be more grumpy that usual, but then your project makes no sense whatever.

If you don't have the actual hardware AND some very valid reasons to use ZIP disks, there is not any reason (if not some peculiar form of masochism ) to choose a format (the ZIP disk) that is poorly documented, terribly supported by the various (real or virtual) BIOSes, and cannot be re-used by anyone else (if not in a VM) unless these other users have the actual hardware (and BTW something developed in a virtual environment very rarely will run on real hardware without changes).

Just use a "normal" disk image, make it 100 Mb or so if you like the challenge of using a small size system.

jaclaz

[awkduck]

3 hours ago, jaclaz said:

Not to be more grumpy that usual, but then your project makes no sense whatever.

Just remember those priceless "Wonko the Sane" quotes. One in particular.

To me, it seems like he is climbing a mountain; just because it is there.

I had a friend who was quite nostalgic about Zip drives. He bought a bunch of standard floppies, just so he could reformat them to hold a handful of MP3s. There wasn't really a point. And no one he knew thought it was cool. He knew that too. I guess he just wanted the idea manifest before him physically. 

Edited January 29, 2023 by awkduck

[jaclaz]

10 minutes ago, awkduck said:

To me, it seems like he is climbing a mountain; just because it is there.

There is no mountain, OP is in a climbing gym.

 

39 minutes ago, awkduck said:

I had a friend who was quite nostalgic about Zip drives. He bought a bunch of standard floppies, just so he could reformat them to hold a handful of MP3s. There wasn't really a point. And no one he knew thought it was cool. He knew that too. I guess he just wanted the idea manifest before him physically. 

As long as there is awareness.of the futility, it's alright.

Still, floppies are not a good substitute to recreate the ZIP disk experience, and it is not like your friend played with floppy disk images in a VM.

A small gift for your friend, zippier:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dvsjr/albums/1489687

jaclaz