I have been using a PC <--> Zip <--> Reno <--> ASR-10 configuration without any problems. I did have to experiment for about an hour to get everything working , however. I now have a standard routine I follow to get everything working properly. Here is what I have found. I have no idea how to do this under Windows 3.11.

Many SCSI Interfaces do not have onboard BIOS's; with those cards you will have little if no problem sharing a ZipDrive with your computer and EPS/ASR.You can skip the rest of this article.But if you do have a pushy interface, especially ones with a onboard BIOS, read on.

Let's say you have your PC powered up along with your Zip drive and now you decide that you want to use the Zip with your EPS/ASR. Here is what you do:

• Tell Windows 95/98 to ignore your SCSI card. This is necessary because otherwise you will experience nasty contention between the two hosts. Windows 95/98 likes to control things. You have to go to System Properties under the Control Panel. From here, go to the Device Manager tab and select your SCSI card. Select properties and under the General tab, uncheck the"Original Configuration" checkbox. This will disable the SCSI card.
• Depending on whether or not you plan on booting the ASR from Zip or floppy, you will have two different routes: If booting from Zip place a bootable ZipDisk in the drive and turn on the ASR10. Viola, you're done! If booting from floppy, you will first have to power down the Zip, then turn on the ASR with a bootable floppy. Once the ASR boots up, THEN turn on the Zip. You should now be able to change the storage device to the ID of your Zip Drive. Viola, you're done! NOTE: If you don't turn off the Zip first, you will get a "Disk Not Responding" error when you try to change storage device on the ASR. I'm not sure why this is necessary, but it took some trial and error to figure this out.
• To return control back to the PC, simply re-check the"Original Configuration" box and click ok.

This is really quite a simple procedure for switching between the two.

A couple of other things I have noticed.

• If you plan on using the Zip with the ASR with your PC TURNED OFF, you will have to turn termination ON on the Zip drive (or whatever the last device in the chain is just before the PC). Otherwise, you MAY experience a corruption.
• If you plan on using the Zip with PC with the ASR turned off, you will likely NOT have to terminate the Zip drive. At least I have found no problems with this (unlike the above). I get the impression that both the Zoom and ASR are active ONLY when powered on (hence my first point).

Contributed by Jason Keeler

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