Zip 100 USB Powered Drive

[Flick]

Anyone have any experience with the Iomega Zip 100 MB, USB Powered drive? I've been thinking about getting one of these but wonder if they are any good. Sam's Club has them for $70.00 and I can get 8 Zip disks (100 MB)for $70.00 as well. I figure it would be nice for a "cheap" backup system.

[Rick]

Can you Say SLOW !!!!!!
Do your self a favor.
Invest the $140 in a good CD-RW drive and disks.

[mjc]

Lite-On 24x10x40 CD-RW around $80-$100 50 pk of disks....around $35...(about the storage capacity of 325 ZIP disks)....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[moikulta]

Hello Flick,
Everyone will have their own reservations about a zip drive. I as a matter of fact have the 250MB portable USB Zip drive and I absolutely love the thing. I also have a CD-RW too. However the Zip drive kicks the RW's butt in the fact that it is completely removable, and portable in seconds flat. Grab and go. Period. Now as far as slow is concerned, no way. I can load 250 MB onto a Zip disk faster than the 24X RW drive can. First, the software, if you want, will look at the blank disk and test it, then read the crap, and so on and so forth. Now don't get me wrong, RW's are good for some things too, but don't bad mouth the Zip, because it can hang in there just as good, and WALK away if it want's too. But I wouldn't advise going to sam's club. Instead go here, www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) . This is a site where you can find all kinds of goodies. Also, the 250 drive will take the 100 disc, but I am certain Iomega told me that the reverse is not true. AS a matter of fact, go to Iomega's web site, and they have some decent deals there too if you register. Just shop around.

[Rick]

While your at it. Look at the failure rate on Zip disks.
Look at the effort it takes to trash one of them disks at $7.00 each.
OPS I forgot to remove the Zip disk from the drive when I shut off the system.
another $7.00 100 meg disk in the trash bin.

Sorry I also own one of these.
One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was installing it.
And I have one of the fastest models. (Scsi Internal) and it’s Still SLOW

[moikulta]

Hello flick, and Rick,
I will admit, the cost of the media is not exactly cheap. Considering I bought the Iomega 250 USB Zip with three Titanium disc's. However, at the time, they were thrown in. But to buy one now is 17.00 a piece. I was also fortunate in the fact that a while after I bought the drive, I took an online survey from Iomega and got three 100 disc's for my trouble of taking the survey. But anyway...on to other facts.
I have not as of yet lost any data on a single disc. I also have not damaged a disc. I have left a disc in the drive and powered down, and the drive will not let you leave the disc in. It automatically ejects. Also, I have unplugged the usb connection while hot, and with a disc in, and then plugged it back in with no symptoms. So, I am convinced of the reliability of the Zip. IN comparison, I did ruin three CD's two nights ago, while trying to burn some copies. The 700MB of storage space on the CD is now down to about 250 left. While burning, and after testing by the software, there was a problem in the disc at such-n-such location and it would give me the error code. All fine and dandy if this were a RW disc, but it wasn't. It was only a R. I do have RW's for putting the really important and big stuff on also. But now I have three disc's with worthless information burned on them. Nice frisbees though. Another fact, is that Iomega has compression software, and depending on how much performance you desire, I can compress a disc to 451 MB. Although I will admit, I have not tried it yet.
Bottom line: They are both good devices. They are meant for different priorities. A CD-RW will allow you to make audio CD's, which is another plus. If money is tight, I would advise the CDRW. I bought my Acer 24X for about 80 online. The software that came with it stinks, but nero is available for demo. RW disc's are about 2.00 a piece.

[Flick]

Hey moikulta, thanks for the link to www.pricewatch.com. (http://www.pricewatch.com.) I have never used them before, but after looking at the link it looks like a good place to shop for computer devices. As for the Zip drive, I use Norton SystemWorks and I currently use 8 floppy disks for the basic rescue disks. These disks will boot to DOS only. However, if I use a Zip drive then I would be able to use just one floppy and one Zip disk and I would be able to boot directly into Windows ME. Also, I do have a SAMSUNG CD-R/RW. Anybody know a way I could "trick" Norton SystemWorks into using the CD-R/RW drive instead of using a Zip drive? Also, be advised that I have never had to use my rescue disks but I want to be a good scout and always be prepared. Thanks for the help.

[Rick]

You should Look into the Drivers for that USB zip drive in DOS.
From what I know about it
There is no such thing as DOS usb drivers..

I do know that with the Scsi version of the Zip drive and zip rescue It will not load or do anything unless the DOS scsi drivers for the zip are loaded from the one floppy disk that is required for the rescue set.

[Steve]

Hi Flick,

I've been using Norton SystemWorks for a couple of years now. I don't have a floppy for an A: drive. I have no A: drive at all. I have an LS120 instead. My F: drive. No matter what I've tried I can't get Norton to create a rescue disk on anything except several floppies or a zip disk. I was impressed with the results a friend had with a zip disk though. He can boot right into Windows with his Zip rescue disk.

I have a BIOS that will boot from the LS120 and have created a boot disk to use. As long as you can set your BIOS to boot from the zip drive, you'll be all set. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Peace and Love, brothers and sisters. Peace and Love

[Flick]

Hi Steve. It's my understanding that as long as the Zip (or Jazz) drive is in the same location in the system when the Norton Rescue set is made, it will boot the system into Windows. The rescue set has both a floppy and a Zip disk. You put both the floppy in the A: drive and the Zip disk in the Zip drive and then power up. I'm no expert but I suppose what happens is that the floppy boots the system into DOS, finds the Zip drive (that's why you can't change the Zip drive location) and then the Zip drive takes over and boots into Windows. Now that I think about it, I really don't see an advantage if you have CD-ROM. Thanks for the help.