Note that although the SCSI and Parallel port versions of the Zip 100 claim the same sustained transfer
rate, the throughput of the SCSI drive is more than twice as fast—a fact that owners of both models
can attest to. If you have a SCSI card with an external port, use the SCSI Zip drives; they’re fast!
Media for the Zip 100 drive costs about $9 per disk in quantities. Media for the Zip 250 drive costs
about $11 per disk in quantities, with U-shaped media being slightly more expensive. Media for the
Zip 750 drive costs about $13 per disk in quantities.
Figure 2 shows the interior of a Zip drive, listing the various components within it.
The interior assembly forms a tray that is mounted on a sliding track. This allows the entire tray to
move with the disk.Zip Drive “Click of Death”
Iomega has acknowledged that as many as 100,000 users of Zip drives have suffered what is called the
“click of death.” The name refers to a sharp clicking sound heard from the drive as the heads are continually
loaded and unloaded as they try to read a disk. This unfortunately means at a minimum that
the disk, and possibly the drive, is likely trashed.
In fact, many users have found that the disk cartridge can be damaged in such a way that, if you
attempt to read it on another Zip drive, that drive is damaged as well. The only solution is to get a
new disk and drive and to not try to read damaged disks in new drives.
If you think your drive or disk has been damaged, call Iomega technical support (see the Vendor List
on this book’s DVD); Iomega should replace the defective disk and possibly the drive as well.
Iomega lists these precautions to help prevent damaged disks and drives:
Eject disks prior to transporting any Iomega drive. This allows the drive heads (which read and write
to the disks) to park in a natural position.
Avoid dropping your drive. It can damage internal structures.
Be especially careful to transport and store Zip disks only in the Zip disk cases.Note:-
Iomega offers utility diagnostics software that tests the integrity of the Zip heads and Zip media. You can download this
from its Web site, although Iomega does recommend users contact them for any “click-of-death” issues.
Another company, Gibson Research, has developed a unique program for diagnosing problems with Zip and Jaz drives.
It is called Trouble In Paradise (TIP) and can be downloaded free from the Gibson Research site. Gibson is well known as
the manufacturer of the Spinrite program for hard disks. The Gibson Research Web site has a lot of additional information
on the click of death and other Zip drive issues. See the Vendor List for its URL and address.Because of the high frequency of this problem, many data recovery companies have had a large business
in recovering data from damaged Zip cartridges. In fact, the problem has even prompted a class
action lawsuit. The law firm of Dodge, Fazio, Anderson, and Jones, P.C. announced that a nationwide
class action (known as the Rinaldi lawsuit for Jason Rinaldi, the first-named member of the class) was
commenced on September 10, 1998, in the Superior Court of New Castle County in Delaware on
behalf of all owners of the Iomega Zip drive. The complaint contains claims for breach of warranty,
negligence in manufacturing and design, consumer fraud, and failure to warn.
Investigation has shown that the click of death has three main causes:
Magnetic particles corrupt the read/write mechanism of the drive, as well as any disk it is
attempting to read.
Lubricant on the disk decomposes, forming a solid material, which accumulates on the heads of
the drive. This prevents the heads from reading the disk and subsequently corrupts it.
The drive heads come in contact with the edge of the spinning disk, which can dislodge the
drive heads or tear the storage media and render the disk useless.
This latter point is especially troublesome because if damaged media is inserted into a new drive, it
can damage the new drive as well—in some cases tearing the heads off their mounts.
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