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G4ME · Mar 20, 2001, 05:56 AM

I am looking for a removable storage drive and the 250mb zip dirve seems to be the best choice, are there any other options with the same or equivilant storage, and does this new drive also read and rewrite 100mb disks beacause the new 250 discs have a sort of clam shape to them and that makes me think that only the 250 will work with it, How reliable are they?

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ddiokno · Mar 20, 2001, 08:55 AM

Originally posted by G4ME:
I am looking for a removable storage drive and the 250mb zip dirve seems to be the best choice, are there any other options with the same or equivilant storage, and does this new drive also read and rewrite 100mb disks beacause the new 250 discs have a sort of clam shape to them and that makes me think that only the 250 will work with it, How reliable are they?

The Zip 250's read both the older Zip 100 and the new clam shaped Zip 250's. The difference in the clam shaped 250 and the "old" 250 disks is the reliability. Iomega is touting a longer shelf life for the new enclosure. The Zip 250 disks are read faster than the Zip 100 disk (not to say the 100's are read slowly, but the mechanism was improved to specifically support the Zip 250).
dave
dave

chris v · Mar 20, 2001, 10:32 AM

Beware the evil USB driver incompatibility... se my topic on this... Don't think I'm the only person to have this problem, since iomega has a web page on their support site devoted to the so-called "fix." (shut down, unplug, restart, replug. "you may have to do this every time you restart" THEIR words, not mine)

I think i'm gonna upgrade to firewire.

My internal 250 on my tower works fine, and reads 100's as well as 250's. Much faster that burning cd's

CV

PeteWK · Mar 20, 2001, 12:11 PM

Originally posted by chris v:
Beware the evil USB driver incompatibility... se my topic on this... Don't think I'm the only person to have this problem, since iomega has a web page on their support site devoted to the so-called "fix." (shut down, unplug, restart, replug. "you may have to do this every time you restart" THEIR words, not mine)

I think i'm gonna upgrade to firewire.

My internal 250 on my tower works fine, and reads 100's as well as 250's. Much faster that burning cd's

CV

While I've heard of the USB problems, I've never experienced them myself. I have one of the USB Zip 250 drives (the little blue external) that I use with my iBook. I've never once had a problem with it freezing or shutting down. My guess is that the problem is with mostly older machines (my iBook is the latest revision). You might also want to consider that the Zip 250 can be had with a firewire adapter that will change the speed of the drive from .9mb per sec. to 2.0mb per second. My adapter is on order.

PeteWK

ddiokno · Mar 20, 2001, 12:32 PM

Originally posted by chris v:
Beware the evil USB driver incompatibility... se my topic on this... Don't think I'm the only person to have this problem, since iomega has a web page on their support site devoted to the so-called "fix." (shut down, unplug, restart, replug. "you may have to do this every time you restart" THEIR words, not mine)
CV

I am currently using the 250 USB powered zip and haven't ahd any issues (then again, I didn't install their software -- and generally haven't in the past, I just went with the built in MacOS support). but do know that some have had problems with Zip drives in the past... but Iomega has moved away from the whole click of death fiasco...
good luck
dave

zigzag · Mar 20, 2001, 04:26 PM

My USB Zip 250 drive has been very reliable and useful, but with hard drive prices coming down like they are, you might want to consider a Firewire hard drive (if you have Firewire). They're faster and hold a lot more than Zip disks.

CD-R/CD-RW is increasingly popular and can be used in any machine, but as someone said, it's not as fast as Zip and it's harder to move stuff data around like you can with a Zip. And Zip disks can be password protected, as can hard drives.

G4ME · Mar 21, 2001, 09:44 PM

got a burner with fire wire but it 12-4-32 slow for CDRW and I will pick up a nother HD internal but I want to back up my HD with out useing CDs, Is it a lot better to use the internal or the external because my G4 has that 3.5" drive bay free. so I might pick up the 145 internal drive compared to the 179 external. dose it have a G4 face plate or is i beige?

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elzinat · Mar 22, 2001, 09:15 PM

Originally posted by G4ME:
got a burner with fire wire but it 12-4-32 slow for CDRW and I will pick up a nother HD internal but I want to back up my HD with out useing CDs, Is it a lot better to use the internal or the external because my G4 has that 3.5" drive bay free. so I might pick up the 145 internal drive compared to the 179 external. dose it have a G4 face plate or is i beige?

The small lower drive bay in the G4 Tower is designed specifically for an internal Zip drive (which has a faceplate that matches the G4 case- you can see it in the Apple product photos). additional internal hard drives sit in the large space at the bottom of the tower around where the first one is: one on either side of the first and a fourth on top of one of those three.

internal hard disks are not "removable storage drives," though. external HDs can be transferred to other computers, are huge, and are of course the fastest option, but are bulky and heavy (even the Very expensive "portable" ones, though smaller, are still huge next to Zip disks or cds). CD-R's are fast, very cheap, run on all computers these days, but are read only once you've burned them. Zip disks are very expensive and not so fast, but small, many people have Zip, and they are magnetic media (no-hassle random access). if you want more help figuring out which of these (or what combination) best suits your needs, tell us more about what you will be doing.

davebagel · Mar 28, 2001, 09:43 AM

how about the super slim VST 250 firewire zip drive. has anyone had any experience with it? i'm thinking of getting one to go with my new powerbook...?

PowerBookDude · Apr 16, 2001, 10:30 AM

Originally posted by davebagel:
how about the super slim VST 250 firewire zip drive. has anyone had any experience with it? i'm thinking of getting one to go with my new powerbook...?

I'm thinking about the VST FireWire 250 too.

*Dumb question* Does the VST use IomegaWare?

PBDude

Bugs Bunny · Apr 16, 2001, 12:19 PM

how about the super slim VST 250 firewire zip drive. has anyone had any experience with it? i'm thinking of getting one to go with my new powerbook...?

I'm using the Iomega 250 MB firewire zip drive with my Ti 500. Works straight out of the box, without Iomega software. The reason I bought the Iomega 250 MB zip drive was the price. I bought it for $200,

Outpost had a special deal on it. The VST zip uses the same drive as the Iomega.

*Dumb question* Does the VST use IomegaWare?

No, VST Format. But with both drives, and Mac OS 9.1, you don't need Iomega Tools or VST Format to use the drives

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