174 replies to this topic

[TheRookie]

Guys,

I want to ask something about the caddy please.
I read that it can emulate up to four virtual floppies. How does one go about doing that?
is it a matter of simply putting an ima or .img file in to the _iso folder?

or does one have to change it to floppy mode or something?

[steve6375]

yes, just select the file in the same way as you select an iso file.

[TheRookie]

Thanks Steve.

[superddman]

First I would like to say hi to everyone on this forum as this is my first post.


In this thread I see that ZM-VE200 ranks better then iodd2501. How about iodd2511 vs ZM-VE200 . Anyone had experience with both of them?

[crashnburn]

Guys,

I want to ask something about the caddy please.
I read that it can emulate up to four virtual floppies. How does one go about doing that?
is it a matter of simply putting an ima or .img file in to the _iso folder?

or does one have to change it to floppy mode or something?

yes, just select the file in the same way as you select an iso file.

So far I've test ISOs. We can select on ISO at a time. How is one supposed to Emulate 4 Virtual floppies at a time?

[steve6375]

You just select the ima file and press in the button. Then select another ima file and press in the button. do this 4 times. You will see A: B: J: K: appear in Windows Explorer as you do it (letters may vary depending on your system).

[TheRookie]

Hi guys,

Can someone please explain to me abit about how the firmware files work?
I mean, I do know how to update it, but there's one for XFat and fat32, and one for ntfs.
Is it safe to assume that, if your first partition is formatted as fat32 or XFat, then you go with that firwmare, and if it is formatted as NTFS you go with the NTFS firmware?
Is there a changelog to see what changed in the updates of the firmware?

Also, am I doing something wrong? I tried loading redo backup to the virtual rom, and when I boot to it, its stops at the something about loading opt core..

Regards,

[TheRookie]

Hello guys,

Just a heads up to those of you who don't check the firmware site.

few days ago, I noticed 64n is out if you've formatted your filesystem withNTFS and if you still use fat32/xfat, then 64f is for you.

The reason why I say few days is because,
I could have sworn that the day i bought my enclosure and proceeded to update the firmware, it was at 61n on the site.
As usual, we'll have to wonder what changed since no changelog of the sort.


and before I go,

I was thinking, couldn't we start a topic on the isos that have or have not worked for you using the virtual drive?

Or, do all isos work?

Thanks for reading,

Regards,

[steve6375]

All ISOs work, though it is better to run some of them in ODD mode and not Dual Mode as it can cause problems when the booted OS see's a USB HDD and a USB ODD.

[TheRookie]

Hello Steve,

Thankyou for your reply.

Just one more question, if you don't mind answering.
Is it possible to map an iso to the zm-ve200 virtual rom in grub4dos?
would something like:
map (hd0,0)/_iso/x.iso (cd)
work? or can't one do that?

Regards,

[steve6375]

The Zalman can be booted as a USB hard disk, so if you boot from it as a USB-HDD then any normal grub4dos menu will work just the same as any USB flash drive or USB-HDD will work.
So just use any grub4dos menu.lst as most of these assume the device has booted as (hd0,0).
See any of my tutorials for example menus.

[TheRookie]

Hi Steve,

Thanks again for your reply,

I think I should properly clarify what I want to do.

Instead of loading the iso in to the virtual rom by using the jog weel to select the iso and load it, could we not do it for example at boot time with g4d?
Like map that iso to the ve200 virtual rom rather than 0xff or hd32?

Hope I made sense.

Regards,

[steve6375]

Why would you need to map a 'real' Cd to a virtual CD? What OS are you booting to and what media are you booting from?
I don't think you can do what you are asking and I don't see why you would want to?

[TheRookie]

Hello Steve,

I've not tested the windows 7 or xp install from the zalman but regarding your information, you say that it can be done, so I believe you.

I mean with isos like that where the zalman is able to still have the virtual rom after the kernel stuff has loaded is nice, and it would be also nice to if one could load the iso to the virtual rom rather than 0xff or hd32 where after the kernel drivers take over then it gets lost.

Regards,

[steve6375]

OK, I see where you are coming from now. The Zalman would need to receive a command via USB to load iso 'x'. I don't think the firmware supports this and grub4dos would have to be able to send the command to the Zalman (again not supported).

[maximus57]

I just got one of these ve200 enclosures. It is pretty cool to be able to load any iso you want from it. But since there is very little info on it (almost none on the website), I wanted to elaborate on something. The ability to load .ima floppy images is great. But did you know that it is not limited to that?. .ima is a raw image format, and the ve200 appears to mount it as such. I created a raw image of a dual partition hard drive using ddrescue in linux. I gave the image an .ima extension. I had to defrag with defraggler to make it contiguous. I then selected it on the ve200. It showed up in windows as a whole drive with both partitions! And it is read/write capable. I have not tried to boot it from that, but this shows it is capable of using raw hard drive images well beyond the floppy. The ve200 is somewhat quirky, but it seems like it is an awesome tool. I can’t believe the documentation/support sucks so bad.

Edited by maximus57, 20 February 2012 - 04:37 AM.

[Grif]

It is quirky.

A few rather rare instances it will not boot any iso. But thats more of a PC issue than a ve200 problem. As I stated before, some Dell computers (such as my own Latitude D820) simply will not boot from it unless I physically remove the optical drive. Other Dells are the same. Some HP's will not see it as an optical drive either. I work in a repair shop, and the ve200 is an invaluable tool for me, however it is not 100%, I would guestimate its 99% successful. Also need to eliminate errors such as flaky, underpowered USB ports (the bane of my existance!) , and make sure the drive and esp the image files are contiguous (windows defrag and/or sysinternals "contig" seem to fix particular probs).

One last hint for use, when faced with flakey underpowered USB ports, use one of those dual USB cords combined with a cellphone 5V 1A USB cellphone charger. The charger will supply plenty of power unless you have made a poor choice of the actual drive in the first place. IMHO the case should only be populated with a drive with initial spinup requirements of 700ma maximum. 500ma is nominal, but drives requiring a full 1 AMP of 5V DC will be very problematic.

An "iphone cube" charger is fine. Others work as well. I use a cube since it is very small and provides a full 1 amp which is plenty to spin up my particular drive. The ve200 is literally one of my prize possessions and if it failed, I would only buy another. The only thing possibly competing of course is the ISOSTICK. which appears not nearly as versatile, tho I would love to get one of those eventually as well.

Yes, support is hard to find, but if you dig a bit you can find help. I just hope Zalman or iodd dont give up on it. After all it's a product with a small niche market comprised mostly of PC techs. Like I said, to me its almost invaluable.

Edited by Grif, 20 February 2012 - 05:19 AM.

[steve6375]

Beware if trying the new ExFat firmware - it does not support NTFS! So if you have an NTFS partition with all your ISOs on, it won't work if you change the firmware to the ExFat version! To get back to the NTFS firmware you have to - copy all files to a folder on your PC, reformat as NTFS, copy on NTFS firmware and select it to change f/w, reformat as NTFS, copy back all your ISOs, etc.!

[steve6375]

I just got one of these ve200 enclosures. It is pretty cool to be able to load any iso you want from it. But since there is very little info on it (almost none on the website), I wanted to elaborate on something. The ability to load .ima floppy images is great. But did you know that it is not limited to that?. .ima is a raw image format, and the ve200 appears to mount it as such. I created a raw image of a dual partition hard drive using ddrescue in linux. I gave the image an .ima extension. I had to defrag with defraggler to make it contiguous. I then selected it on the ve200. It showed up in windows as a whole drive with both partitions! And it is read/write capable. I have not tried to boot it from that, but this shows it is capable of using raw hard drive images well beyond the floppy. The ve200 is somewhat quirky, but it seems like it is an awesome tool. I can’t believe the documentation/support sucks so bad.

Nice find! I made a 300MB FreeDOS disk using RMPrepUSB on a USB stick, then made a 300MB TEST.IMA image of it using the Drive -> File button in RMPrepUSB and put it on the VE200. I can boot from it just fine and it is read/write.

[maximus57]

You can also make an empty file (or use any file for that matter), put the .ima extension on it, mount it on the zalman and it will show up as an unformatted drive. You can then format it and do as you wish with it. One of the quirks I am noticing is that windows doesn't always see the second drive of my dual partition image. It shows it exists in drive management, but not in a usable form.

Also, if you change the mode to dual (even if it already is) while it is powered on, you can get the main drive to show up. However the main drive will be in read only mode (don't know why), but your image file will still be read/write. This can also be quirky and doesn't always show up. But you can get it to show an iso, an image, and the main drive at the same time.

I had it plugged into a Dell laptop trying to boot an iso that that laptop didn't like, powered off the laptop, and then the zalman would not come up at all on that usb port. The screen on the zalman was even blank except for the lock status and hard drive status. Moved it to a different port and it started working again. Not sure if that was the fault of the laptop or the zalman.

Edited by maximus57, 20 February 2012 - 05:48 PM.

[Blackie]

Is there anybody who nows how to change the display order of the files?
There was an explaination of this on the iodd forum website but they deleted the english version a while back.

I remember it has something the to do with a file in de _IODD folder where you can put the iso files in order you want but i cant remember the filename.

[TheHive]

Is there anybody who nows how to change the display order of the files?
There was an explaination of this on the iodd forum website but they deleted the english version a while back.

I remember it has something the to do with a file in de _IODD folder where you can put the iso files in order you want but i cant remember the filename.

change the display order of the files

 File_Spliter_4G.zip   378.31K   115 downloads



Quote from the iodd2501_manual_v2.pdf file

Sort (File Sorting)
■ To facilitate the easy browse through files from
the iodd display window, sort files in name order.
1. From www.i-odd.com site, download the latest
File_Spliter_4G under Downloads menu.
2. Unzip and run the downloaded program.
3. Connect iodd and select iodd drive in iodd Drive
section. If no iodd drive is listed, click Refresh.
4. Select the desired file sorting order in the
Method drop-down list.
Non : Do not sort files
Name - Ascending : Sort files from A to Z
Name - Descending : Sort files from Z to A
5. Once the sort completes, Sort Ok message appears.
Disconnect, then reconnect iodd to PC.
* The sort function will not work if the iodd Drive is in
a local drive or the PC.

[saddlejib]

Which one to buy and why ?
ZM-VE200
ZM-VE200 SE
or
ZM-VE300
Anyones opinion is appreciated and welcomed (subjective or objective), or should I look at something else ?

[Grif]

Which one to buy and why ?
ZM-VE200
ZM-VE200 SE
or
ZM-VE300
Anyones opinion is appreciated and welcomed (subjective or objective), or should I look at something else ?

I own a Zalman ZM-VE200. The only difference I can tell between the ZM-VE200 and the ZE-VM200 SE is that the SE version includes a ESATA cable in the box. The ZM-VE300 of course has USB3 support, and the requisite cables. I look forward to any comments regarding any other differences between the models. Still loving mine, and look to be buying at least one other in the near future.

Edited by Grif, 09 May 2012 - 03:16 AM.

[TheHive]

There seems to also be a
ZM-VE300-SE


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817379027

Zalman ZM-VE300-SE Aluminum Alloy, Acryl, Poly Carbonate 2.5" Silver USB 3.0 ZM-VE300 HDD External Enclosure with Virtualization and One Touch Back-up