scsi zip 100

[Eric]

First off, I apologize for the lengthy post. Now then...

I have a couple of internal scsi zip 100 drives. One of these is one the
original blue internal drives and the other was more recently purchased (Jan
2000). Both drives have worked nearly flawlessly until the other day when
the newer drive started acting up. Note that both computers are running
win95 osr2.1. The old drive is connected via iomega's isa scsi adapter
(adaptec 1502 I believe) while the newer drive is connected to an adaptec
2940u2w.

I initially noticed that files saved to the drive would not exist once the
disk was removed and reinserted. This behavior began after using the disk
with a zip 250 drive on a different computer. I had no previous problems
with this particular disk. The disk could be read in my older zip 100 scsi
drive but the files did not show up there either. I could write files to
the disk with the older drive and then read them with the newer drive but
any files written with the newer drive would not show up.

I then ran TIP on the disk using the older drive. It found some 1500 soft
errors and a couple of firm errors which it relocated to the spare sectors.
I was going to reformat the disk thinking that the brief usage with the zip
250 drive may have messed up the format. However, before formatting I tried
to use PGP'S file wipe utility to remove the files written by the older
drive. The operation appeared to be successful until I removed the disk and
reinserted it; the files were still there. Note that pressing F5 to refresh
windows explorer did not make any noticeable difference.

I was about to reformat the disk, but when I reinserted it the drive started
clicking. I ejected the disk and checked the edge which looked ok but it
still clicked when I put it back in the drive. I checked another disk which
had some redundant data on it and that one clicked as well. I reproducibly
get two clicks and windows does not detect a disk in the drive. However,
the disk can be read in the older drive so I know it's ok. I have not
rechecked the original problem disk in the older drive.

It seems like the newer drive has been hit by click of death, so I took the
cover off the drive and checked the read/write heads. They appear to be
ok. I tried lubing the guide wires as described by Gary Brand (I can post
the original text if anyone's interested) and discussed by Steve Gibson.
Note that this didn't help but I was unable to get the heads to slide freely
in and out as Gary describes and was a bit apprehensive about forcing them
as I didn't want to damage the drive any further.

Is this drive repairable? Or, should I try to return it to iomega? Are
they still accepting returns on out of warranty clicking drives?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Eric

[GHalleck]

Eric wrote:

<<snipped>>

Post by Eric
It seems like the newer drive has been hit by click of death, so I took the
cover off the drive and checked the read/write heads. They appear to be
ok. I tried lubing the guide wires as described by Gary Brand (I can post
the original text if anyone's interested) and discussed by Steve Gibson.
Note that this didn't help but I was unable to get the heads to slide freely
in and out as Gary describes and was a bit apprehensive about forcing them
as I didn't want to damage the drive any further.
Is this drive repairable? Or, should I try to return it to iomega? Are
they still accepting returns on out of warranty clicking drives?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Eric

IIRC, the time period has lapsed for returning COD drives to Iomega. Nor
has there ever been a repair policy --- just replacement with essentially a
factory-refurbished unit. And in this day and age, the ZIP 100 drives are
quite passe...too small. Update to and convert over to CD-RW or to a
removable, USB micro drive.

[Eric]

Post by GHalleck
<<snipped>>

Post by Eric
It seems like the newer drive has been hit by click of death, so I took
the cover off the drive and checked the read/write heads. They appear
to be ok. I tried lubing the guide wires as described by Gary Brand (I
can post the original text if anyone's interested) and discussed by
Steve Gibson. Note that this didn't help but I was unable to get the
heads to slide freely in and out as Gary describes and was a bit
apprehensive about forcing them as I didn't want to damage the drive
any further.
Is this drive repairable? Or, should I try to return it to iomega?
Are they still accepting returns on out of warranty clicking drives?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Eric

IIRC, the time period has lapsed for returning COD drives to Iomega.

Do you have any further information on this? I've found a page at Iomega's
site for diagnosing clicking drives.
http://www.iomega.com/support/documents/30109.html. Although I've gone
through the steps outlined on this page and arrived at the point where it
says to contact Iomega, I have yet to speak with them directly.

Post by GHalleck
Nor has there ever been a repair policy --- just replacement with
essentially a factory-refurbished unit.

I know that Iomega has never had an official repair policy regarding these
drives. The repair information that I was referring to was posted to this
group by Steve Gibson a few years ago and can be found at Google Groups at
http://tinyurl.com/z9ta.

Post by GHalleck
And in this day and age, the ZIP 100 drives are quite passe...too small.

It's agreed that they are now a little on the small end of the scale
especially when compared to other alternatives. However, I'm in an
environment where the use of these drives is still quite prevalent.

Post by GHalleck
Update to and convert over to CD-RW or to a removable, USB micro drive.

Yes, I have a CD-RW drive, but I've run into difficulties especially where
cross platform data transfer is concerned, i.e., PC to Mac especially where
the Mac CD specification will not support file names longer than
approximately 31 characters. It's quite frustrating to have all of your
meaningful long file names truncated to near meaningless noise.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Eric

[Eric]

Post by Eric

Post by GHalleck
Update to and convert over to CD-RW or to a removable, USB micro drive.

Yes, I have a CD-RW drive, but I've run into difficulties especially
where cross platform data transfer is concerned, i.e., PC to Mac
especially where the Mac CD specification will not support file names
longer than approximately 31 characters. It's quite frustrating to have
all of your meaningful long file names truncated to near meaningless
noise.

I believe this statement may have been in error though I'm sure that someone
here will be kind enough to correct me. To the best of my recollection,
when using Mac OS 9.x the file name is limited to ~ 31 characters when
saving files (including saving to zip disks). However, if the media is a
joliet formatted CD then OS 9.x will truncate the file names to 8.3. This
makes nearly most PC based CD's nearly useless if one wishes to use long
file names and maintain cross platform compatibility. I should note here
that I'm not familiar with OSX so I don't know if this problem still exists
in the newer Mac OS's.

Eric