how do I install a tape drive?

[RBBRMADE]

I need to put an old colorado 250MB tape drive in a XP Home box.
I have it in, and cabled, but do not know what to set in BIOS, etc.

Thanx for any help,
Ron

 

[Ronstang]

I don't know the answer by why the hell would you want a small slow tape drive when CD-Rs are almost free and DVD-Rs are cheap?

 

[LucJoe]

Maybe he has a bunch of old data backed up on tapes that he wants to get back now?

I had one of those old tape drives (Colorado 250mb) and I'm sure I have the manual around here, I'll see what I can find.

 

[RBBRMADE]

It is a Colorado 250MB, and I do need it for some OLD tapes!
Thanx for any help!
Ron

 

[batotman]

Pretty much should be able to install it like a cd-rom if its IDE. Just need drivers and software for it I suppose.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: batotman
Pretty much should be able to install it like a cd-rom if its IDE. Just need drivers and software for it I suppose.

Yup.

Thorin

 

[RBBRMADE]

It is not IDE, It connects with the floppy, I believe.

 

[thorin]

Hmmmm I've never seen a drive like that before. However you should still be able to slap it in, give it drivers and make it work.

Thorin

 

[CrashX]

Those old drives that connect through the floppy cable use a floppy passthrough, so the floppy drive is still plugged in.
No OS will most likely detect it though. They are old and proprietary.
You will need the software that came with it to be able to see it and read from it.
But that brings up another problem. Most likely the software is for Dos, or Win 3.1. Maybe Win95. Good luck trying to get it to run in XP.

 

[selene]

Theres almost no way to get it out.. find a old 486 system and install dos 6.2 or 7 on it.. i couldn't get any of my tape drive software to recognize the old drives.

 

[ParatoOptimal]

The software creates a "virtual drive" that you can access via the software. I have a few different Colorado TD's, an Iomega and some other company TD. I've never been able to get the Iomega to function. A friend gave it to me. It may be broken. I never fired up the Global something or other drive. I used to use the Colorado drives ages ago. Colorado went through various versions of DOS/Win software. They'd add a feature only to drop a great feature on the previous free version. They later charged for software for those who got hand-me-down TD's. The last time I checked, it was impossible to find any software online. I may have various incarnations of their software backed-up somewhere. Let me know if there's someway I can upload it to you here and I'll dig it out if you like.

 

[RBBRMADE]

Thanx for the offer, ParatoOptimal.
After hours of searching I finally found something on driverguide that might work with XP.
I will let you know how it turns out!

Ron