750 MB Zip Drive can't see Disk

[R. Nolan]

I'm trying to diagnose a problem for a friend who has an

Iomega 750 MB External USB Zip Drive.

The drive is attached to a PC running Win XP Home SP2,
and has been used, along with Iomega Automatic Backup, for
scheduled backups of several directories containing mostly MS
Word docs.

I was actually working on something else when I noticed that the
Zip drive is occasionally making a rather loud noise that lasts
for about a second or two and sounds kind of like an old electric
drill revving up. This noise is much louder than the sound that the
drive makes when it is running. I am not familiar with this kind of
Zip drive, and asked her if it had always done that but she wasn't
sure.

Decided to check it out, so browsed to the Zip disk. Was
able to see the three folders that she had backed up, and was
able to open one and see a list of subdirectories and files, but
when I tried to open one of the others, the PC froze up. (no
error message) Was able to end task and try again, but the
same thing happened. It also froze up when I tried to open
one of the docs. Under Properties, the disk was shown as
having ~ 500 MB of used space.

Then decided to try to copy the contents of the disk to the
HDD, but the copy progress bar didn't seem to go anywhere
and then I got an error message that Windows had encountered
an error when trying to copy whatever.doc and that a loss of
data may have occurred (not the exact wording). Then tried to
copy a single file and the same thing happened and the PC
locked up. When I tried to view the Zip disk again after ending
task on My Computer to un-freeze everything, I got a Please
Insert Disk message, so I ejected and re-inserted, but the disk
was not even detected. Properties, which took a long time to
come up, now listed the disk as full and the filesystem as Raw.
Iomega Format option is grayed out.

Downloaded Tip.exe diagnostic util which recognized drive but
couldn't detect disk, so it couldn't proceed.

So what I'm trying to figure out is:

1. Is the sound that the drive is making normal?
2. Is the problem with the drive, the disk, or both?
(she doesn't have another disk and doesn't want to
spend the $ on one if the drive is toast.)
3. What caused the data loss and can it be recovered
or can the disk at least be restored to usable condition?
4. Are Zip disks an appropriate medium for this kind of
automated backup, that is, is it OK to just leave a Zip
disk in a drive for months on end or should it be
inserted only prior to the scheduled backup and then
removed until just before the next backup?
(which would be a PITA)

TIA, Bob

[Eric]

Post by R. Nolan
I'm trying to diagnose a problem for a friend who has an
Iomega 750 MB External USB Zip Drive.
The drive is attached to a PC running Win XP Home SP2,
and has been used, along with Iomega Automatic Backup, for
scheduled backups of several directories containing mostly MS
Word docs.
I was actually working on something else when I noticed that the
Zip drive is occasionally making a rather loud noise that lasts
for about a second or two and sounds kind of like an old electric
drill revving up. This noise is much louder than the sound that the
drive makes when it is running. I am not familiar with this kind of
Zip drive, and asked her if it had always done that but she wasn't
sure.
Decided to check it out, so browsed to the Zip disk. Was
able to see the three folders that she had backed up, and was
able to open one and see a list of subdirectories and files, but
when I tried to open one of the others, the PC froze up. (no
error message) Was able to end task and try again, but the
same thing happened. It also froze up when I tried to open
one of the docs. Under Properties, the disk was shown as
having ~ 500 MB of used space.
Then decided to try to copy the contents of the disk to the
HDD, but the copy progress bar didn't seem to go anywhere
and then I got an error message that Windows had encountered
an error when trying to copy whatever.doc and that a loss of
data may have occurred (not the exact wording). Then tried to
copy a single file and the same thing happened and the PC
locked up. When I tried to view the Zip disk again after ending
task on My Computer to un-freeze everything, I got a Please
Insert Disk message, so I ejected and re-inserted, but the disk
was not even detected. Properties, which took a long time to
come up, now listed the disk as full and the filesystem as Raw.
Iomega Format option is grayed out.
Downloaded Tip.exe diagnostic util which recognized drive but
couldn't detect disk, so it couldn't proceed.
1. Is the sound that the drive is making normal?
2. Is the problem with the drive, the disk, or both?
(she doesn't have another disk and doesn't want to
spend the $ on one if the drive is toast.)
3. What caused the data loss and can it be recovered
or can the disk at least be restored to usable condition?
4. Are Zip disks an appropriate medium for this kind of
automated backup, that is, is it OK to just leave a Zip
disk in a drive for months on end or should it be
inserted only prior to the scheduled backup and then
removed until just before the next backup?
(which would be a PITA)
TIA, Bob

It sounds to me like "The Click of Death", a common problem with zip
drives (or so I've heard). To answer your questions:
1. Yes, it commonly makes a few audible clicks, reves up to speed and
then back down to normal (or at least it does on my external 250).
2. Could be the drive, but probably is the disk itself, she would need
to get another disk to verify.
3. Data loss may have occurred, considering the disk is constantly in
the drive for months at a time, even cds lose data after time. It could
possibly be recovered, you may want to try the drive and disk on another
computer (though I doubt the disk will be seen), but you will probably
have to get professional assistance to get the information off the disk.
Google for it.
4. No, zip disks are not appropriate mediums for this type of backup,
keeping the drive active, shortens the life of the drive and the media,
if you have to use this type the the RPITA is the way to do it, though
still, I would suggest getting a cd burner and using it with a
Rewritable disk.

JMHO

HTH

Eric

[geothermal]

Post by R. Nolan
I'm trying to diagnose a problem for a friend who has an
Iomega 750 MB External USB Zip Drive.
The drive is attached to a PC running Win XP Home SP2,
and has been used, along with Iomega Automatic Backup, for
scheduled backups of several directories containing mostly MS
Word docs.
I was actually working on something else when I noticed that the
Zip drive is occasionally making a rather loud noise that lasts
for about a second or two and sounds kind of like an old electric
drill revving up. This noise is much louder than the sound that the
drive makes when it is running. I am not familiar with this kind of
Zip drive, and asked her if it had always done that but she wasn't
sure.
Decided to check it out, so browsed to the Zip disk. Was
able to see the three folders that she had backed up, and was
able to open one and see a list of subdirectories and files, but
when I tried to open one of the others, the PC froze up. (no
error message) Was able to end task and try again, but the
same thing happened. It also froze up when I tried to open
one of the docs. Under Properties, the disk was shown as
having ~ 500 MB of used space.
Then decided to try to copy the contents of the disk to the
HDD, but the copy progress bar didn't seem to go anywhere
and then I got an error message that Windows had encountered
an error when trying to copy whatever.doc and that a loss of
data may have occurred (not the exact wording). Then tried to
copy a single file and the same thing happened and the PC
locked up. When I tried to view the Zip disk again after ending
task on My Computer to un-freeze everything, I got a Please
Insert Disk message, so I ejected and re-inserted, but the disk
was not even detected. Properties, which took a long time to
come up, now listed the disk as full and the filesystem as Raw.
Iomega Format option is grayed out.
Downloaded Tip.exe diagnostic util which recognized drive but
couldn't detect disk, so it couldn't proceed.
1. Is the sound that the drive is making normal?
2. Is the problem with the drive, the disk, or both?
(she doesn't have another disk and doesn't want to
spend the $ on one if the drive is toast.)
3. What caused the data loss and can it be recovered
or can the disk at least be restored to usable condition?
4. Are Zip disks an appropriate medium for this kind of
automated backup, that is, is it OK to just leave a Zip
disk in a drive for months on end or should it be
inserted only prior to the scheduled backup and then
removed until just before the next backup?
(which would be a PITA)
TIA, Bob

Check ebay for a new zip disk. If it also does not work, then check
ebay again for another 750 external. Things need to be replaced every
so often if they get a lot of daily use.

Or another solution is search ebay for other similar sized back up
external drives as sometimes they get sold with a few blank disks.
1 gig or 2 gig might be just as useful as a 750. Or even a 250 would
work and they could have one disk for personal doc files and one for
work or whatever.

I have left zip disks in the drive for weeks, but never longer than
that.

Have you tried to move the doc files one at a time to your hdd ?
One of my sisters 100 zip disks had two of the 200 files on it that
refused to move or budge. But I was able to move the 198 good files
in chunks of 20 over to the hard drive and onto a new zip disk. So
I did them in chunks of 20 files in order to find which files were
causing the problem.

geothermal