Look Mac, I'm just gonna tell you once - you have to back up to the web with XDrive Try it free
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Miss your computer while away from home? Cheer up, GoToMyPC lets you access it from anywhere.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Review
Created: January, 2000
The Iomega Zip Drive, when first introduced in the mid-1990s, was one of the first low-cost mass storage devices aimed at the consumer or small busienss markets.
The unit is a dark purple case, measuring 7 inches by 5-1/4 inches, by 1-1/4 inches high. Small padded feet allow it to be stood either horizontally or vertically.
Zip disks, which need to be purchased separately, usually come in clear plastic cases measuring a little more than 4 inches square; they easily fit into slightly oversized shirt pockets.
The package includes two CDs with software. The first CD, Iomegaware (version 1.0), contains the drivers and several Iomega tools. Installing the CD is simple: start the install, choose the software to install and a drive letter to associate with the zip, and reboot.
Installation without a CD is a little bit more difficult. There are two options: go to Iomega's Web site and download Iomega's software, or create an installation floppy, if there is access to another computer with a CD-ROM. The floppy install is basic, designed only to allow access to the Zip drive.
Once a full CD install is complete, a folder with several utilities and introductory tours shows up on the desktop.
The CopyMachine utility allows copies of entire disks or drives.
The 1-Step Backup application is a limited backup utility. Files and folders can be individually selected. Annoyingly, it requires the entire Zip disk, erasing any previous contents. Subsequently using the backup shortcut gives the option of doing a complete backup or archiving just the files changed since the last backup date.
The Parallel Port Accelerator can improve performance considerably; in limited testing transfers to and from the drive improved by about 100 percent after using the utility. A change in the machine's BIOS may be necessary to achieve this increase.
The BIOS holds code that controls the keyboard, monitor, drives and serial communications, among other things.
The second CD has version of Norton Rescue designed specifically for Zip drives. By using one floppy and one zip disk, a fully functional (albeit slow) version of Windows can be created, useful for recovery in emergency situations. Quite a number of settings are preserved, including the access to the Internet and playing audio CDs. This utility works only under Windows 9x.
Installation onto a Windows NT Workstation (with Service Pack 5) seemed to go flawlessly. Starting a system with a Zip disk in the drive intermittently causes a scan of the disk, however. More seriously, the test system crashed the first couple of times while trying to access the drive.
Subsequent usage seemed to go off without a hitch.
Setting up under Linux took some digging through online documentation, but users familiar with that operating system should have no trouble with installation. One caveat: Iomega changed the hardware slightly in the recent past, requiring two different drivers. Notice to OS/2 users: that recent hardware change made it impossible to use with OS/2.
One annoying tendency is for a Zip diskette to go zooming out of the drive when ejected. Luckily, the hard casing enables disks to withstand impact with hard surfaces, but it can be disconcerting the first few times this happens. This ejection speed seemed to be stronger under Windows 98 than NT.
The Zip drive comes in a variety of formats, including one with a 250 MB capacity, as well as a SCSI version and internal units.
Reviewer's rating: 3.5 / 5
Comments: In some computing circles, Zip disks have become standard for data exchange. If you need a Zip for this purpose, or are replacing an old Zip drive, this drive is fine. Otherwise, investigating other options (including the Zip 250 MB version) would be worthwhile.
Price: $109 US, $140 Canadian.
Zip disks: $10 US per unit, $15 Canadian. 10 pack: $100 US, $150 Canadian 10-pack. Other formats available.
|
Adding RAM is easy, 