Can I use a CD-ROM/Iomega Zip/SparQ/Syquest drive on a PCjr?
Yes. People have reported success with the following types of devices on the parallel port: • Iomega Zip drives • Hard drives using a parallel-to-IDE converter. • Backpack CD-ROMs • CD-ROMs using parallel-to-SCSI converters • SparQ removable storage device ( www.micro-zone.com ) And of course, there are the SCSI solutions. SCSI on a PCjr is rare though, so don’t hold your breath. The following devices are known to work with the TMC 850Jr, which is the only SCSI adapter I’ve been able to test on a Jr: • Various hard drives • NEC Multispin 2x CD-ROM • Iomega SCSI Zip 100 The trick to parallel port devices is having DOS device drivers. If you have a working device driver, almost anything is possible. One particularly notable device driver is PalmZip by Klaus Peichl. This device driver for the standard parallel port Zip 100 works on every version of DOS from 2.1 to 5 (and probably 6.x as well). The speed isn’t great, but it works well and has never crashed my machines or dropped a byte of
