Hi Todd,

I was surprised and alarmed to read your comments on the Iomega Zip 100
drives.  I thought I would check up on whether there were problems in our
Department as we have a large number of the external type in use.  They are
gradually being  replaced as people buy new computers with internal Zip
drives already installed.  The only person seemingly to have suffered is
myself and I had the click-of-death syndrome, but thankfully no loss of
data.

I contacted Iomega (Europe) by telephone and had to let the person I was
calling hear the clicks over the line.  He took my details over the phone
and asked  how long I had had the drive, to which I was very vague in my
reply.  The upshot of all this was that they sent me a new drive by post
within 3 days with packaging to return the defunct drive back to them.
They did not ask for proof of purchase, dates etc., but did stipulate that I
had to return the drive within a month or they would charge me for it.
There was no charge either for the new drive nor the return postage, so I
did feel Iomega had treated me pretty well overall.

Your experiences, however, may cause me to re-think my long term data
storage plans.

Jim Hall,
University College London Medical School,
England. UK.


----- Original Message -----
From: Todd Sherman <t-sherman@home.com>
To: Plummer, Timothy B. <Plummer.Timothy@mayo.edu>;
<histonet@pathology.swmed.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 6:47 AM
Subject: RE: digital imaging


> Hello Timothy,
>
> Sounds like your DVD setup is quite effective.  I wanted to add some
> comments regarding the Iomega Zip 100 however unflattering as they may be.
>
> Executive summary:
> Fawlty, I mean faulty, drive; unreliable and pricey media; buggy software
> Acceptable for trivial storage; rapid data access
>
> The nitty-gritty:
> I used to be an advocate of the product and have personally/professionally
> installed more than ten of these units over the last four years in
different
> operating systems.  Six years ago when these devices first started
> proliferating, neither writable CDROMs nor DVDs existed and they were a
> great alternative to the floppy disk.  I now discourage their use as an
> archival storage system.
>
> I have had two drives fail because of the "click-of-death" syndrome...and
> no, I'm not making this up.  A class action suit was filed and is
currently
> being settled [JASON RINALDI, ET AL. v. IOMEGA CORPORATION, Civil Action
No.
> 98C-09-064-RRC : SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE] in which "the
> Court has entered an Order which preliminarily determined that the
> Plaintiffs fairly and adequately represent the interests of the Class and
> are proper parties to assert these claims."  The claims made were "(1)
that
> the ZipAE Drives contain a manufacturing and/or design defect that causes
a
> iclickingi problem, and (2) that as a result of the alleged defect, users
> experience damage to the ZipAE Drive, to the media contained on ZipAE
Disks
> inserted into the drives or to other drives into which the ZipAE Disks are
> inserted."
>
> I've had another Zip drive "eat" a disk; i.e. some internal mechanism
> pinched the media surface and tore the film.  I and others have had stored
> data irretrievably lost when a second disk was inserted after a previous
> disk was accessed and ejected.  This was a either an driver/operating
system
> error or an Iomega software utility error.  I found a workaround for this
> but it was an unacceptable solution.
>
> Further, the disks are expensive with a price range of $8.00 to $15.00 per
> 100MB disk.  There is some economy in the cost of the drive itself
compared
> to RW-CDROMs or DVDs, but that savings is quickly lost when you add a
> lifetime of storage disks to your total cost of unit operation.
>
> I have no reservations using the devices for routine data transfer or
> temporary storage as long as I preserve an original source.  But in my
> opinion it would be foolish to rely on these devices for archiving,
> especially the storage of critical patient or research material.  The
CDROM
> solution seems the most cost effective at this point but I suspect DVD use
> could become the preferred archival media in the near future.
>
> Regards, Todd
>
> Todd Sherman
> t-sherman@home.com
> IT student
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Plummer, Timothy B. [mailto:Plummer.Timothy@mayo.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 8:28 AM
> To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject: RE: digital imaging
>
> <snipped by Todd Sherman>
>
> For people interested in using these permanent
> storage options it is recommended that you take some time to consider your
> storage size needs, access requirements, and file organization.  The DVD
> system is really nice.  Other options to consider would be JAZ 1-2GB(sp?)
> drives and for small needs- ZIP 100MB  from Iomega.
>
> Timothy B. Plummer
> Coordinator, ImmunoPathology Core Facility
> Transplantation Biology Research
> Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN, USA
> Phone: 507.538.0689
> fax: 507.284.4957
> plummer.timothy@mayo.edu
> http://researchweb.mayo.edu/transplantation_biology/
>
>
>