Any way of formatting 2Gig Jaz drives?

[Licensed to Quill]

I just got this 2 gig Jaz drive and it reported unreadable and needing
format. I figured someone might have formatted it for a Mac before I got
it?

So I did a long format.

My iomega utility (twice) gets to 100% on the long format and then reports
that the format failed (writing the finish track?) and the disc is unusable.
It is one of those error messages which seems to be not exactly the most
believable because if it were so, the format process would not have got to
100% without reporting any problems? But I Have heard that you cant do a
DOS or WINDOWS format on Iomega drives. Will any Norton one work?

The drive seems to work fine with other discs (2 and 1 gig) and I am
wondering if there is anything I can do to complete the format this
not-inexpensive disc?

Licensed to Quill

[Rick]

Post by Licensed to Quill
I just got this 2 gig Jaz drive and it reported unreadable and needing
format. I figured someone might have formatted it for a Mac before I got
it?
So I did a long format.
My iomega utility (twice) gets to 100% on the long format and then reports
that the format failed (writing the finish track?) and the disc is unusable.
It is one of those error messages which seems to be not exactly the most
believable because if it were so, the format process would not have got to
100% without reporting any problems?

That's not necessarily how the format routine shows on screen. It will
always jump to 100% even if there is a problem. If there is a problem it
will either hang at a certain point for quite a while and then jump to
100% or suddenly just jump to 100% and then report an error message.

Post by Licensed to Quill
But I Have heard that you cant do a
DOS or WINDOWS format on Iomega drives. Will any Norton one work?

Norton specifically states that NDD is *not* to be used on Jaz or Zip
dirives.

Post by Licensed to Quill
The drive seems to work fine with other discs (2 and 1 gig) and I am
wondering if there is anything I can do to complete the format this
not-inexpensive disc?
Licensed to Quill

Try the format routine several times. If it still fails contact Iomega
support about a warranty replacement for the disk. See the paper insert
in the disk case for warranty info. NB: I have no idea what amount of
warranty support Iomega is providing for the disks at this point since
Jaz was discontinuted almost 2 years ago.

[Licensed to Quill]

Hi Rick

No, this one actually gets labouriously up to the 100% level and then
reports failure seemingly after it has finished the process.

Is there ANY other awy of formatting the disc?

Post by Rick

Post by Licensed to Quill
I just got this 2 gig Jaz drive and it reported unreadable and needing
format. I figured someone might have formatted it for a Mac before I got
it?
So I did a long format.
My iomega utility (twice) gets to 100% on the long format and then reports
that the format failed (writing the finish track?) and the disc is unusable.
It is one of those error messages which seems to be not exactly the most
believable because if it were so, the format process would not have got to
100% without reporting any problems?

That's not necessarily how the format routine shows on screen. It will
always jump to 100% even if there is a problem. If there is a problem it
will either hang at a certain point for quite a while and then jump to
100% or suddenly just jump to 100% and then report an error message.

Post by Licensed to Quill
But I Have heard that you cant do a
DOS or WINDOWS format on Iomega drives. Will any Norton one work?

Norton specifically states that NDD is *not* to be used on Jaz or Zip
dirives.

Post by Licensed to Quill
The drive seems to work fine with other discs (2 and 1 gig) and I am
wondering if there is anything I can do to complete the format this
not-inexpensive disc?
Licensed to Quill

Try the format routine several times. If it still fails contact Iomega
support about a warranty replacement for the disk. See the paper insert
in the disk case for warranty info. NB: I have no idea what amount of
warranty support Iomega is providing for the disks at this point since
Jaz was discontinuted almost 2 years ago.

[D***@ix.netcom.com]

Post by Licensed to Quill
No, this one actually gets labouriously up to the 100% level and then
reports failure seemingly after it has finished the process.
Is there ANY other awy of formatting the disc?

If your SCSI controller has a BIOS, you could try its low-level format
routine on the Jaz disk. If that completes successfully, then use the
Iomega software to short format the disk afterwards.

Even if that works, I wouldn't trust the disk with any important data
after it had been through that.

[Tim]

I had the same problem. I was about ready to send in my disks for
replacements. I killed 4 disks testing the Long Format on 3 different
drives at home! I then thought I would try one last time with a drive at
work. I tried to long format and it worked!!! I was able to get them
"alive" again. The drive at work is the older Jaz 2Gb drive with E.16
firmware so I dont know thats going on. At home I have internal Jaz drives
one E.16 and one E.17.

Tim

Post by Licensed to Quill
I just got this 2 gig Jaz drive and it reported unreadable and needing
format. I figured someone might have formatted it for a Mac before I got
it?
So I did a long format.
My iomega utility (twice) gets to 100% on the long format and then reports
that the format failed (writing the finish track?) and the disc is unusable.
It is one of those error messages which seems to be not exactly the most
believable because if it were so, the format process would not have got to
100% without reporting any problems? But I Have heard that you cant do a
DOS or WINDOWS format on Iomega drives. Will any Norton one work?
The drive seems to work fine with other discs (2 and 1 gig) and I am
wondering if there is anything I can do to complete the format this
not-inexpensive disc?
Licensed to Quill