Diane Gamm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>Todd, on the reliability question, I've been using zip drives and disks for years - >for backup and for storing and moving projects between computers, both Macs and PC's - and have never had any problems with any of them. >> >>I've had Iomega SCSI and USB external drives, and internal drives in all computers >in a Multimedia Lab I managed; and now VST's expansion bay zip drive in my PowerBook G3 Pismo - which so far has worked flawlessley. Come to think of it, we also had a VST exp bay drive in a Pismo used for projecting lectures, without problems also. The dreaded "click of death" sounds bad, but I actually have never known anyone who has experienced it. (Now, where's that wood to knock on?) - Diane
Hi Diane, I believe that CoD mainly affected Iomega drives (esp. Zip and Jaz, but maybe others) manufactured before 1999 or so, but the window may be considerably larger than that. There are utilities for Wintel that supposedly check for CoD succeptibility, but I don't know whether such tools exist for Mac OS. Considering that Iomega faced a class-action lawsuit over their design flaws, I would think that they would have provided such a tool. There was a factory recall of Jaz drives a few years ago, too... In 2000, I had a 2GB external SCSI Jaz drive, which I verified on iomega.com to have been manufactured late enough so as not to be affected by the recall. Equipped with your drives' serial numbers, you should be able to check the website to see whether any of your drives qualify. In my personal experience, I've had one internal IDE 100MB Zip drive that suffered from the CoD (exhibited symptoms in '99), and the consequential damage to my Zip disks wasn't obvious until it was too late (about a year later); by then, my project data was seriously corrupted. During that time, I used the disk in several blue-and-white G3s in a multimedia lab, so I wonder whether those drive are kaput now... http://www.texasatty.com/iomgcod.html contains a very brief synopsis of what CoD does. What this page fails to mention is that a disk damaged by an affected drive is capable of damaging other drives. Hopefully you'll never have to deal with that! -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | RoadTools $30 PodiumPad available at Apple retail stores, $20 Traveler CoolPad at Staples. Both in white for iBooks at <http://roadtools.com>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
