hmmm. trouble with internal Zip drive on G4/450 tower. Ideas?

[clay]

For the first time in ages, I'd like to use the internal Zip drive on our old G4/450 fileserver to check some old zip disks before getting rid of them. The G4 is running 10.4.11. The zip shows up in Apple System Profiler under ATA devices on the same chain as the internal DVD/CD drive.

I put a disk in the drive, and nothing happens. The disk doesn't show up on the desktop, and doesn't show up in Disk Utility. I restarted with all peripherals disconnected from the system, unplugged and re-plugged the IDE cable. Put a disc in the DVD/CD drive to make sure that data can still be copied over that ATA bus (yes).

Any ideas of other things I should try? I'd like to get the data off these zip disks if possible, but it doesn't seem like critical data since it hasn't been needed in the past 5 years at least.

Thanks

[clay]

I should add that I've never actually used this particular zip drive. It was here before I got a job here (about 4 years ago), so I don't know when it was last known working.

[btfc]

I have a brand new one,Apple branded with g3 bezel, it's yours for shipping.

[Fritz]

I restarted with all peripherals disconnected from the system, unplugged and re-plugged the IDE cable. wrote:

this to me, says bye bye

[clay]

btfc wrote:
I have a brand new one,Apple branded with g3 bezel, it's yours for shipping.

I don't care about looks/bezel--do you know if it's working?

[Seacrest]

Maybe boot into OS 9, if you can?
There might not be drivers for it in OS X.
Just a guess.

[clay]

Seacrest wrote:
Maybe boot into OS 9, if you can?
There might not be drivers for it in OS X.
Just a guess.

good idea. I had thought of that, but don't have 9 installed on the machine and don't know if the drives are formatted with OS 9 drivers. I suppose I could always clear one of the drives off and check....

[btfc]

You can keep your current bezel. As I recall, it shouldn't need drivers; I've been setting up a dual boot G3 to donate, I'll verify that. The drive is brand new, in original box!

[Forrest]

After 4 years of non-use - I'd expect a good deal of dust in the drive. Use a can of compressed air to clean it out.

[Harbourmaster]

As far as I can tell Zip disks don't work in X.

I have a known working drive and good disk that will do nothing (You can hear the drive spin up and load the disk when it is inserted) when the machine is booted into 10.4.11. They work fine when booted into OS 9.