Hi It depends. Not all parallel ports are created equal. Many are bi-directional though. There are about 3 different flavors. As I recall, I connected the parallel data out to the data lines and ran the strobe to one of the status input lines. There is a start and stop signal that uses to start and stop the tape as well. I can give you a copy of my code. There is a web page, http://www.lvr.com/parport.htm , that has several links to parallel port stuff. Since you are now at the hardware level and on a roll, this is a good place to look. I don't recall if the two drives that you loaned me were parallel or serial outs. I think one was a parallel though. Dwight