Zalman ZM-VE200 great toolkit addition for cheap

[Avgsmoe]

I've been playing with the Zalman ZM-VM200 for the past week, and absolutely love it. Best toolkit addition I've done in awhile.

Changed it to fat32 firmware, so now it's syslinux friendly, and has ISO emulation. Which is a great way to bypass the built in ISO limit. Only downside is no ISO's over 4GB, so no OSX past 10.4.

Only problem I've had was installing XP, the ZM-VE200's partition was using first available letter, C: Which makes sense, but it would be nice not to have to format the OS drive before installing for it to work.

The USB speed is standard. It's nice to have esata, and the FS lock is the icing on the cake.

The UI can use some help, but it's still easy enough. My main complaint is the jog lever doesn't advance when held, a slow scroll would be great. Also the ISO isn't really locked when selected. If the jog lever is bumped the ISO is unmounted. It should be press jog lever to mount, and press to unmount.

For roughly $50 USD it's a great buy.

 

[glricht]

I've got the IODD (the Zalman's predecessor) and really like it.

The one downside of the IODD is if you use USB, it requires 2 connections to the PC for power. The picture on Zalman's site implies that the new model only requires 1 connection, True?

Where did you purchase it from? When I checked about two months ago, it didn't seem to be available anywhere outside the UK.

 

[Avgsmoe]

I've got the IODD (the Zalman's predecessor) and really like it.

The one downside of the IODD is if you use USB, it requires 2 connections to the PC for power. The picture on Zalman's site implies that the new model only requires 1 connection, True?

Where did you purchase it from? When I checked about two months ago, it didn't seem to be available anywhere outside the UK.

The implication is correct. 1 connection for data and power for USB. You have to be careful with length though. I plugged the cable into an extender (total length roughly 2 meter), and it would not fully initialize.

Both USB and ESATA for ESATA connection.

I got it from newegg.

 

[TimJacobs]

Here is one from Amazon for $42.00

 

[16k_zx81]

Possibly not as elegant, but there is a couple of free solutions that, I think, achieve the same thing.

I had a go with this last night with some success. Found it quick and easy to set up

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25043

just thought I would add here in case anyone is interested

 

[rudger]

I Have had one of these now for probably a couple of months and I love it, best piece of Kit I have in my toolkit I keep a copy of my entire CD wallet in ISO format on the Drive and most of the time I do an onsite Visit I leave the CD wallet in the Boot of my Car. I only use CD's Now when the machine does not support boot from USB Optical drives


Wayne

 

[Martyn]

I Have had one of these now for probably a couple of months and I love it, best piece of Kit I have in my toolkit I keep a copy of my entire CD wallet in ISO format on the Drive and most of the time I do an onsite Visit I leave the CD wallet in the Boot of my Car. I only use CD's Now when the machine does not support boot from USB Optical drives


Wayne

Ditto works well..............

 

[Avgsmoe]

Possibly not as elegant, but there is a couple of free solutions that, I think, achieve the same thing.

I had a go with this last night with some success. Found it quick and easy to set up

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25043

just thought I would add here in case anyone is interested

Not all iso's are syslinux friendly. Which is what that multiiso application does. This drive is a USB cd drive, and can run syslinux. You have both options.