It takes two hands to clap, and in this case you have one of each...

I'm in a similar situation with an internal 3.5" Orb drive and a single disk. The disk is still in its sealed foil and there's no point in taking it out until I have something (second disk or second drive) for a second opinion.

sangokushi wrote on 2025-02-12, 09:52:

I bought an used Castlewood ORB drive a while ago. After I inserted the disk and clicked on the drive icon from My Computer in W […]
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I bought an used Castlewood ORB drive a while ago.
After I inserted the disk and clicked on the drive icon from My Computer in Windows XP, the light on the drive will blink in orange for a minute then stop.
Then Windows pops up a message which says disk not formatted, and format the disk fails.
I only have one disk, is there any way I can tell it's a drive issue or disk issue?
Thanks!

Is it USB, SCSI or Parallel?

Your model is a 2.2GB, issued to market in 1999. My guess is that it should be used with 98SE and specific program to do something.
If you are familiar with Zip drives maybe it's a similar thing.
Unfortunately I do not own this drive and can't say for sure, but look around if there are risks involving using a bad disk or drive killing one or the other, like the Syquest Sparq (bad disks did kill units and units good disks in a domino effect style).

After a quick search ORB Tools are required, if I am not wrong.
I attached a txt file that comes in an archive for drivers.

File Name is ot164_ga.exe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS29bQ4-ffw

Blinking and then green light looks correct.

Nexxen wrote on 2025-02-12, 13:23:

sangokushi wrote on 2025-02-12, 09:52:

I bought an used Castlewood ORB drive a while ago. After I inserted the disk and clicked on the drive icon from My Computer in W […]
Show full quote

I bought an used Castlewood ORB drive a while ago.
After I inserted the disk and clicked on the drive icon from My Computer in Windows XP, the light on the drive will blink in orange for a minute then stop.
Then Windows pops up a message which says disk not formatted, and format the disk fails.
I only have one disk, is there any way I can tell it's a drive issue or disk issue?
Thanks!

Is it USB, SCSI or Parallel?

It's a SCSI drive

Nexxen wrote on 2025-02-12, 14:40:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS29bQ4-ffw

Blinking and then green light looks correct.

If it works on iPhone with built-in driver, it should work on XP with their built-in driver?

sangokushi wrote on 2025-02-12, 17:10:

Nexxen wrote on 2025-02-12, 14:40:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS29bQ4-ffw

Blinking and then green light looks correct.

If it works on iPhone with built-in driver, it should work on XP with their built-in driver?

Not necessarily.
Linux, Unix and systems alike work differently. My help stops here as I don't know anything else.
Try the drivers in that file I posted, maybe it's just that.

I have a USB IOmega Zip that wouldn't work on my xp machine. Zp 750 works with OS X 10.5 and later but not with Xp unless I use iomegaware software.
IDK, good luck with your drive.

Nexxen wrote on 2025-02-12, 19:31:

Not necessarily. Linux, Unix and systems alike work differently. My help stops here as I don't know anything else. Try the drive […]
Show full quote

Not necessarily.
Linux, Unix and systems alike work differently. My help stops here as I don't know anything else.
Try the drivers in that file I posted, maybe it's just that.

I have a USB IOmega Zip that wouldn't work on my xp machine. Zp 750 works with OS X 10.5 and later but not with Xp unless I use iomegaware software.
IDK, good luck with your drive.

Thanks! I will google search for the tools

sangokushi wrote on 2025-02-12, 20:48:

Nexxen wrote on 2025-02-12, 19:31:

Not necessarily. Linux, Unix and systems alike work differently. My help stops here as I don't know anything else. Try the drive […]
Show full quote

Not necessarily.
Linux, Unix and systems alike work differently. My help stops here as I don't know anything else.
Try the drivers in that file I posted, maybe it's just that.

I have a USB IOmega Zip that wouldn't work on my xp machine. Zp 750 works with OS X 10.5 and later but not with Xp unless I use iomegaware software.
IDK, good luck with your drive.

Thanks! I will google search for the tools

ga is the German language version...I've attached the English one here (other language versions are available on the Castlewood archive -just filter by file name at https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.castlewood.com/* )

Hi,
For checking the disk read on windows, I use Victoria to perform the read test.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/vict … or_windows.html

On linux, I perform a ddrescue on the disk to see if any issue pop up during read sequence.