Zip Disk Problems

[Rolling Rock 33]

I am trying to diagnose a problem on a friend of mine's business computers.
She uses zip disks to backup her files and to transfer them between
computers. The problem just recently started. Several of her zip disks
won't allow the files to be read from them. Also, they have ghost images of
other files on the disks, and these ghost images from other disks have
erased the files that are supposed to be there. Any ideas as to maybe what
happened? Any help here, would be greatly appreciated. I have been beating
my head on the wall, and I can't figure out what happened.

Thanks,

Jerry

[Eric]

Post by Rolling Rock 33
I am trying to diagnose a problem on a friend of mine's business computers.
She uses zip disks to backup her files and to transfer them between
computers. The problem just recently started. Several of her zip disks
won't allow the files to be read from them. Also, they have ghost images of
other files on the disks, and these ghost images from other disks have
erased the files that are supposed to be there. Any ideas as to maybe what
happened? Any help here, would be greatly appreciated. I have been beating
my head on the wall, and I can't figure out what happened.
Thanks,
Jerry

Bit more info please? Size of drive 100, 250, 750's? Internal or
External? Updated drivers?

I would say from your OP that the disks have either gone bad (happens
from time to time) or they have become so fragmented that they don't
make any sense to the other drives. What should be done is to find a
computer that will read the disk (probably the one that wrote to it) and
do a complete 17 minute (on USB 250 External) format of the disk and
then take it to the other computer and see if it can read it? If it can
read it your in shape if not then the disk is most likely shot or you
have a drive going out (Test with new disk in reverse order to determine
which one).

JM2C

Eric

[Rolling Rock 33]

Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I did. I took them to another
drive where I work at, and I ran a thorough scan disk check on them, then I
copied the information from them to the hard disk. Then I formatted the
disks, scanned them again, and then defragged them. I then copied the
information back to the disks. But alas, the information was not able to be
read by the original computers. It said that the files were bad or
corrupted. These are all internal 100Mb zip drives. The two that my friend
has are XP and she has one 98SE. My PC at work is 98SE, and worked fine.
These drives of hers are several years old, and had been working fine up
until a few weeks ago. Now she is afraid to back anything up to the zip
disks.

I am in the process of getting a new Dell computer ready for her, along with
a new external USB zip drive. DO you think that it is just the drives going
bad, and maybe it's time to replace all of them?

[Eric]

Post by Rolling Rock 33
Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I did. I took them to another
drive where I work at, and I ran a thorough scan disk check on them, then I
copied the information from them to the hard disk. Then I formatted the
disks, scanned them again, and then defragged them. I then copied the
information back to the disks. But alas, the information was not able to be
read by the original computers. It said that the files were bad or
corrupted. These are all internal 100Mb zip drives. The two that my friend
has are XP and she has one 98SE. My PC at work is 98SE, and worked fine.
These drives of hers are several years old, and had been working fine up
until a few weeks ago. Now she is afraid to back anything up to the zip
disks.
I am in the process of getting a new Dell computer ready for her, along with
a new external USB zip drive. DO you think that it is just the drives going
bad, and maybe it's time to replace all of them?

If it's just plane data it shouldn't really matter XP is backwords
compatible with 98SE (I could almost swear that anyway). I would say
that the drive has come to a silent end, and it is time to replace it.

Really, however on the side of your business friend, she should get a at
least a cd burner, at best dvd burner, with the cd you can burn 650MB of
date and a dvd I think does like 9 Gig (wouldn't swear to that).

GL

Eric

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

Post by Rolling Rock 33
Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I did. I took them to another
drive where I work at, and I ran a thorough scan disk check on them, then I
copied the information from them to the hard disk. Then I formatted the
disks, scanned them again, and then defragged them.

It is not "safe" to run a thorough ScanDisk on a Zip disk. Look here:
http://pw2.netcom.com/~deepone/zipjaz/general.html#testing

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

Post by Rolling Rock 33
I am trying to diagnose a problem on a friend of mine's business computers.
She uses zip disks to backup her files and to transfer them between
computers. The problem just recently started. Several of her zip disks
won't allow the files to be read from them. Also, they have ghost images of
other files on the disks, and these ghost images from other disks have
erased the files that are supposed to be there. Any ideas as to maybe what
happened?

I think that might happen when changing disks if the BIOS is set to
control a Zip drive as a fixed hard drive. The FAT from the first
disk can be written onto the second disk. The BIOS should usually be
set to NONE or Not Installed at the Zip drive's location (if there is
a Zip-specific setting, that might also be worth trying).

I think I've also heard of this happening when the Windows cache
doesn't get flushed when the disk is changed. It's probably best to
always use software ejection (rather than pushing the button on the
front of the drive) to prevent such problems. It might also be
helpful to press F5 (refresh) after ejecting a disk before inserting
another one.

It is good practice to give each Zip disk a unique label or volume
name as it might help in preventing that sort of problem. By default,
Zip disks all have the same label.

[ytrewq]

Does this happen with a new Zip Cart?
If not happen with new cart, I suggest you replace problem carts - does
Iomega still honor lifetime warranty?
=================================

Post by Rolling Rock 33
I am trying to diagnose a problem on a friend of mine's business computers.
She uses zip disks to backup her files and to transfer them between
computers. The problem just recently started. Several of her zip disks
won't allow the files to be read from them. Also, they have ghost images of
other files on the disks, and these ghost images from other disks have
erased the files that are supposed to be there. Any ideas as to maybe what
happened? Any help here, would be greatly appreciated. I have been beating
my head on the wall, and I can't figure out what happened.
Thanks,
Jerry

[Rick]

Post by ytrewq
Does this happen with a new Zip Cart?
If not happen with new cart, I suggest you replace problem carts - does
Iomega still honor lifetime warranty?

They dropped lifetime warrnaty on disks a long time ago. It's five years
or less. (And I'm pretty sure it's a lot less.) Check the insert in the
Zip case.

Post by ytrewq
=================================

Post by Rolling Rock 33
I am trying to diagnose a problem on a friend of mine's business

computers.

Post by Rolling Rock 33
She uses zip disks to backup her files and to transfer them between
computers. The problem just recently started. Several of her zip disks
won't allow the files to be read from them. Also, they have ghost images

of

Post by Rolling Rock 33
other files on the disks, and these ghost images from other disks have
erased the files that are supposed to be there. Any ideas as to maybe

what

Post by Rolling Rock 33
happened? Any help here, would be greatly appreciated. I have been

beating

Post by Rolling Rock 33
my head on the wall, and I can't figure out what happened.
Thanks,
Jerry