[MacNZ]

Hi,
My sister wants to buy a new Zip drive for transporting photoshop files from her art school to home. Anyway, I saw there were many different Zip drives available. In the 250 model there is a USB one and a firewire adapter which is meant to up the read rate. Also there were internal ATAPI. She has an iMac but we also have a family powermac networked. Should she get a USB/Firewire drive or an internal one for the networked powermac if she wants the best read speed or does it not matter?

[chabig]

I would recommend the USB drive for two simple reasons:

1). It's the smallest phsyically so...
2) It's easy to transport. The USB port is on every late model Mac and most new PCs. The flexibility she will have by being able to just take her zip and plug it into any PC should not be overlooked.

You will find the zip drive plenty fast. I would not even consider getting the firewire adapter.

Chris

I would also agree on the Zip 250 USB. It is the most transportable of the bunch. Also, with those large Photoshop files, she'll need as much storage as she can carry. The only compelling reason to get the Firewire adapter is if her iMac is a DV version AND if the computers at her school have Firewire. The speed on larger file transfers will be worth it.

Wayne

[iPaul UK]

A couple of other things worth noting.. If your after a Zip 250.. make sure the computers Zip drives at the Art School are capable of reading the 250 type disks. Otherwise.. Just get the regular Zip 100 USB to be on the safe side.

Second point. Whatever you do.. DON'T install ANY Iomega software to run your new Zip drive. Believe it or not, you don't need to install anything to run a Zip drive on an iMac. Just plug it in and thats it! Installing the software will give you some serious problems that i'm sure you can well do without.

Also, I don't think FireWire is really needed for a Zip drive. USB is cheaper and will work great for most jobs.

[fady]

I believe the firewire adapter is worth it... I have yet to experience any reliability problems (copy errors...) since I have it. Also, no need for a power adapter anymore.

my 2 cents!
F.

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Fady

I would suggest the Zip 250, mainly b/c I have one for my iBook. It is very fast and smaller. Now about the Zip 250 being compatible with your Zips at school it will be. All that you have to remember is to get 100MB Zip Disk b/c the Zip 250 will read and write 100's as well as 250's. So just in case they do upgrade to 250 one day you will already be there. There is no need for the Firewire adapter b/c it will still have to travel at USB speeds anyways. Have fun with your iMac

um, go for the zip 250 usb. physically, it is a good deal smaller than the zip 100 usb, and looks a lot better too. i hear it is faster, too. just because you have a 250 drive does not mean you have to use 250 disks. just use the 100 disks. the usb is fast enough. my usb zip 100 can copy a 50MB photoshop file to my hard drive in about 40 seconds. so i guess the zip 250 would transfer at about the same speed.

i imagine the firewire adapter could make it go quite faster, because 1.2MB/sec is the top speed of usb. 50MB/sec is top speed of firewire. not that it will go that fast, but it will probably go maybe 5-7 MB/sec. that is my guess. the zip 250 is just an ata drive with a usb adapter on the back. replace it with a firewire cable, and it's still an ata drive. and zip drives are slow, no matter what.

so, i would say, get the zip 250 with the firewire adapter.

dabradda

[MacNZ]

Thanks for all the responses. My sister is off to buy her USB Zip 250 right now. It's also good not needing any Iomega software + drivers as you said. Thanks again!

[Feathers]

WAITTTT!!!!!!!

If she wants to transport Photoshop files to and from Art School, Zips will eventually drive her insane, they're way too small. A half decent Photoshop image can be 100Megs without even going totally mad. Get a Jaz or better still, a CD-R. I never use my Zip anymore. I notice that most of the other replies don't even mention Photoshop or the usage to which the Zip is actually to be put. Ahem!

[MacNZ]

Jazz is too expensive for her I think since she is a student. Zip drives and disks are cheap that's why she considered getting one and I think she thought the 250Mb disks would be enough. Thanks for the thought though.