Zip Drives revisited

[tomos]

I had to get something off of a zip-drive disc today, so I had to dig out my Iomega 250 Zip Drive.
Hearing that whine and click is still so familiar. I stopped really using them at least ten years ago (but I'd say it was longer back).

IIRC, at the time I bought it, the 250MB drive was a recent big advance over the older 100MB drive/disks. The discs actually look really like the floppys, just fatter (this disc is one of the 100MB ones).

So, for nostalgia's sake, here's a few images

[tomos]

BTW, the data was still good

[IainB]

BTW, the data was still good

That's impressive - that it still worked OK. Mind you, I guess there's no reason why the data should not have been any good if you stored it nicely.
Some nostalgia, though I threw away my iomega ZIP drive and disks years ago - the cable was a parallel port (printer) cable and of no use whatsoever and obsolete. I was by that stage using PHD (Portable Hard Drive) 2½" format drives anyway.
The ZIP drives were a fleeting, ephemeral technology - soon obsolete. From my perspective, the iomega drive and disks  were a waste of money. I think I learned a lesson there.   

[mouser]

I remember them well.. That was a product that really filled a need and felt very solid.

[tomos]

The ZIP drives were a fleeting, ephemeral technology - soon obsolete. From my perspective, the iomega drive and disks  were a waste of money. I think I learned a lesson there.   

yes, I have a memory of that one costing me around the £100 mark. Prior to that I was using one of the 100MB drives in the office -- they were much bigger (and more solid build). Luckily the one above has USB as well as the parallel port. And the disks weren't cheap either. But I did get good use out of them for a few years.
I had transferred all zip-disks to desktop and other backup years ago. (The disk above was from someone else.)

[wraith808]

I remember them well.. That was a product that really filled a need and felt very solid.

I didn't get into Zip drives, but I used Jaz drives quite extensively.  The use of the SCSI interface with removable media really shook things up in the illustration and 3d modeling realm.

[skwire]

Back in the day, I thought I was pretty badass to have the only USB Zip drive amongst my peers (as opposed to the parallel port version).  In fact, I still have it, and a Jaz drive.  In the dialup days, I used to download stuff (game mods, maps, etc.) over the fast connection at work and take the files home on Zip disks.

[ConstanceJill]

I have an IDE 100 MB Zip drive stored with other old stuff… back then I didn't think the IDE ports would disappear.

[jadinolf]

I had 5 Zip Drives - 2 parallel port and 3 USB ones (100 Meg)

Loved them but when they became obsolete I just had to scrap them.

Couldn't even give them away.

Oh well, it was fun while they lasted.

[MilesAhead]

My First Pentium machine(a 500Mhz Pentium III) was supposed to be a server.  I got it as payment for a coding project.  It was a bit underpowered for a server but it made a nice workstation.  Anyway, it came with Lan hardware and a built in zip drive.  I never got around to buying another zip disk.  I just used the 100 MB that came with it.  It is too bad the disks were so expensive.  Every time I tried to psych myself up to buy a 250 MB zip disk I thought of other stuff I could really use for the money.

I only used it for quick and dirty file backup.  The capacity just wasn't high enough to back up my system.  Mainly source code file copy.  I don't remember it being bootable either.  That would have made a decent option for a rescue disk if so.


In fact I applied for a job at IOmega.  I remember the interviewer shoving disks in the thing to show me how it worked, before I got the PC with the drive.  Weird how things go.  I never thought there would come a time with floppy free PCs.  I just figured the capacity would increase.  But I guess it is a losing proposition to spin the media if you don't have to. 

[ayryq]

I have one in a box someplace too - I got it for free as part of some sort of rebate or class-action suit or something. I don't remember now, but I remember there was a catalog that I could choose something out of. The lab PCs in college had built-in zip drives so it was at least useful for a little while.

[40hz]

Zip and Jaz drives were totally rad when they first came out. And they were a welcome (and much more reliable) replacement for all those old Quantum tape drives that always seemed to backup your data just fine but often stumbled severely whenever you tried to restore something.

Funny thing this thread started. I just tossed a box containing over 100 old zip disks plus four drives (2 externals and 2 internals) into the recycling dumpster last week while cleaning out my basement. End of an era - Long Live the Zip! 

[MilesAhead]

tape drives that always seemed to backup your data just fine but often stumbled severely whenever you tried to restore something.

Yeah.  I should have passed on the tape backup and had a CDROM put in when I had my 486 built.  I can never forget reading the restore instructions that came with the tape drive.  "You will probably never have to run the restore.. but..."  That really inspired confidence!  Turns out it was a waste anyway since there was no means to boot a restore program to avoid the "system files are in use" gotcha' that prevents restoring the OS.  What a waste of money!  And the thing made such a racket!  Man did I hate that whirring sound!

I've heard leaf blowers that sounded better!

[Cloq]

Zip and Jaz drives were totally rad when they first came out. And they were a welcome (and much more reliable) replacement for all those old Quantum tape drives that always seemed to backup your data just fine but often stumbled severely whenever you tried to restore something.

Yep.. was totally psyched with my first zip drive and set of disks.. until 2 months later.. click of death.. pulled the metal sheath aside to look at the media.. ring of scratch... 

With that being said.. the speed was amazing compared to floppies. For some reason the the 5 1/4 floppy seemed to hold up better than any of the hard shell equivalents.