Re: Zip

[Steve Luzader <sluzader@fre.fsu.umd.edu>]

Sherry Brown wrote:
> > > Folks, are there those on the list who have experienced the Iomega,
> > > Zip-Drive Click-of-Death???
....
> The "Click of Death" means the drive keeps trying to mount the zip
> cartridge. After 3 - 6 minutes of this, you receive the "This disk is
> unreadable, would you like me to initialize?" ...

   After major work in our basement (including sawing into the concrete 
floor and having lots of drywall cut), my original Zip drive became 
balky and I'd get a message that the drive wasn't ready.  (The only 
"official" Zip software I use is "Guest", so I don't get any other 
messages about initializing the drive, etc.)  I asked around about the 
problem and was told the drive probably needed cleaning and that 
required sending the drive away to someone.  I took a can of compressed 
air used for cleaning photographic negatives, stuck the nozzle inside 
the drive, blew a few blasts of air, and have had _no_ further trouble 
with the drive.  In fact, I bought a second Zip drive from Staples when 
they offered a parallel port version for $140 with a $50 rebate.
   I'm also puzzled about the comment made by Dan McIsaac about the 
lifetime of data being only about one year.  I know a dealer who told 
me that data decays on the disks.  However, I bought my original Zip 
drive when they first came on the market, and as far as I know the 
disks still hold their data.
   By the way, I do have a minor complaint.  The parallel port 
accelerator utility that comes with the newer drives seems to have no 
effect on the performance of the enhanced parallel port in my computer. 
I wonder if anyone has observed improved speed as a result of using 
this utility.

Steve Luzader
-- 
Stephen Luzader
Frostburg State University
Frostburg, MD
http://antoine.fsu.umd.edu/phys/luzader