Iomega Zip Drive 250-USB and W2K 1

[bhf3rd]

System will acknowledge drive, perform ejects, but refuses to acknowledge disks, formatting options don't activate,
won't allow assignment of drive volume name.

Seems like all Iomega's help articles relate to the drive not being recognized. Have the current Iomega ware, this symtom occured for same drive installed on W2K and ME systems.

 

[bcastner]

Look thoroughly through this site:

http://www.usbman.com

 

[bhf3rd]

Thanks, I am working my way through that site. Have tried uninstalling all USB stuff, then plugging them back in with PC off. Still no recognition of disks. In ME, no acknowledgement of the zip icon- although the drive is acknowledged.

Have been unsuccessful in reconfiguring scsi card to iomega designated parameters on my Windows 2000 as well.

Could any of this be related to not having enough space on my HD? I am down to less than <10%, have 196mb Ram.

 

[ttterk]

Maybe I'm missing something, but if the drive does (and doesn't do) the same thing installed in a W2K system and an ME system maybe the drive is bad. Or did it actually work under some system?

 

[bhf3rd]

Thanks tterk. I am loathe to have to accept that the drive has suddenly gone bad, as my Peerless docking part only works about 20% of the time(and has been discontinued to boot!), so now I am stuck with a lot of stuff on 100MB disks that I can't read. My first zip drive was a W98-based scsi- which under w2000 doesn't work. So I am really bummed out on the whole Iomega scene.

 

[ttterk]

Ouch. Though I've never had a problem with a zip drive or disk, I've looked around a bit just in case. Try

http://grc.com/tip/clickdeath.htm;

maybe something there might help you. If not, EBay has IDE 100Mb drives @ $30, and parallel @ $10. Good luck.

 

[bhf3rd]

Tterk and the Click of Death. Truly couldn't believe my eyes upon seeing this site. I am at work right now, so will check it out when I get home. The only previous trouble I ever had with Zips was not having the sparrow driver loaded(W98).

I hope this might diagnose my Peerless drive if I can get the contacts to wake up. I have to manually eject my peerless disk with a paperclip. 9 out of ten times when i hook it up I get an sos sign, cleaning the contacts with 1/2 rubbing alcohol 1/2 water seemed to do the trip- the slightest movement breaks the circuit. Not sure if I need to replace the base or the docking station or both.

 

[bhf3rd]

July 15, 2003. Without a doubt the Click of Death page is a valuable explanation of what is wrong with the zip drive. In contacting Iomega, 800-697-8833 and giving my Zip 250MB-USB Serial # I was told it was out of warranty(purchased Jun 2000). I mentioned the &quot;Click of Death&quot; to a &quot;Wes&quot;, and mentioned David Hellier's promise to replace click dead drives.

I then, perhaps, made the mistake of saying I was aware of the Lawsuit. This enabled him to say the lawsuit had been settled.(May 2002) All of the information related to the class action lawsuit against Iomega is available @

http://www.iomega.com/rinaldi/index.html.

The time period for being a member of it has expired. Iomega agreed to give all kinds of discounts such as rebates off purchases of new disks(!) and Drives. The class action settlement does not say anything about replacing the drives for free. In asking about repair costs on my Zip 250, Wes said $79.00, however, if I bought a new one, I could get a 15% discount and $30 mail in coupon that would make the cost of a new one the same as repairing the original one, with a new 1-yr warranty. He also said Iomega would replace disks for free. So this leaves me in the situation of having over a Gb of data on Iomega disks that I can't access. From the Click of Death site, I downloaded and ran their diognostic prgram which told me that everyone of my disks had been affected by this Iomega hardware distruction. I need to purchase some kind of data recovery software, possibly like that offered on the Click Site, then in a drive working attempt to recover my data. Only after that would I send in the disks for a 1-1 swap. I am going to review the links, clips of Iomega's President stating on ZDTV &quot;If our customers have a problem specific to this issue, whether it's in or out of warranty, we're going to take care of and replace the product if necessary&quot;. I will call back Iomega specifically addressing the promise and then post my final outcome here. I am also going to contact the Click Site and ask them why they don't have some reference to their lawsuit being settled. Some settlement- a bunch of discounts and a million dollars in Iomega products into schools, while all owners fo Iomega disk-eating drives get screwed- quietly. I bought my drive within the allocated time period, and never saw any notice anywhere about the class action suit. Of course I was not living in Maryland!!!! To be continued...

 

[ttterk]

I can hardly wait to hear how this comes out. Good luck.

 

[bhf3rd]

Final word on this is Iomega's position now is that as they settled the class-action lawsuit referenced earlier, it is no longer their policy to replace defective drives. The best they offer is a new one at less 15% with a promo code, and a mail-in rebate for $30 which lowers the price to the same as the cost to repair drive out of warranty. Who are we kidding, they wouyld just throw the drive out of warranty and send a new one anyway, wouldn't they? Maybe not. So you get another zip drive with a 1-yr warranty.

Clearly they still acknowledge responsibility as they will replace damaged disks 1 for 1 at no charge(maybe postage).

I will have to submit to this as I have no alternative, but clearly will no longer consider Iomega as a viable long-term storage option. You have to wonder how much of Iomega's business is going to be lost to competitor's DVD recorders.

 

[ttterk]

I haven't given up on Iomega, primarily because an encrypted Zip disk is pretty secure and easy to keep that way and it's still way faster than a CD-RW for I/O. Of course, they're hedging their bets with CD-RW, DVD+RW and online I-Storage offerings.

I probably also still like 'em because none of my drives/disks have died.

 

[bhf3rd]

In it's own sick way, just knowing what caused it brings satisfaction. Supposedly using the TIP software periodically will enable you to know in advance that the drive is starting to go- and is affecting how data is stored on your disks.

I thought I could install a SCSI card I have on my other PC- a Dell, can't so it. Now looking for a SCSI-USB cable. I've seen them somewhere. Thanks for your help.

 

[bhf3rd]

My finds have been tight, so it wasn't until the end of October. Final solution for this became obvious when I broke open the Iomega Zip and discovered the top head had slid caticornered off to one side. Just like one of the pictures ion one of the posted click-of-death sites. I have no idea how it could have done this- not sure why it was even attached- magnetism?. Anyway, off to e-bay I went and bought an almost new zip 250. Then came the sweating part- how many of my disks had it damaged?

I was lucky, was able to recover all of my data that had been saved on zips, 1-250, the rest 100's. A few of the disks I then noticed would not eject when told to. I threw them away.

Bottom line for me is I will never again consider Iomega as a safe format. I am keeping the new 250, and some of the disks(will sell the rest), for use in individual transfering situations.

Related to this, having initially fallen in love with my Peerless drive, I purchased a new &quot;top part&quot;, as mine, it turned out had died. There was no way to know whether it was the top or the bottom docking part- so I had to find both. This wasn't as easy as one would think, as even though the Peerless has only been discontinued since last January- it requires some digging to find them. I ended up getting them, from a guy who had posted them thru Amazon.

Like the Zip, I will keep this, and its 20gb removeable drive, only for use in specific situations.

I could give a rats ass about the lawsuit that Iomega settled. They do not deserve anyone's loyalty given their refusal to replace in kind these head-shifting Zip drives.