Iomega 10919 Zip 100 Drive (Parallel Port)

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Product Details

Product Manual [535kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000J3II
• Item model number: 10919W/O#13300
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,338 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Memory Cards & External Storage > Zip Drives

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Is your hard disk running out of room? Do you need to protect your valuable data? Consider Iomega's Parallel Port Zip 100 drive, an inexpensive and portable external disk drive.

Iomega says it has sold over 100 million of its 100 MB Zip disks, the floppy companions to the Zip 100 drive, and we believe them based on how easy it was for us to set up and use the Zip 100. We just plugged it in, connected a cable to our PC's parallel port, dropped in the CD-ROM, and followed the setup wizard.

The CD-ROM comes with the necessary software to make the Zip 100 act like any other drive on your PC--except the Zip 100 has a 100-MB storage capacity. We set the drive up on our test machine and copying files to and from drive F was just as easy as it was on drive A or C.

You can still use your printer with the Zip 100, as the external drive includes its own parallel port. Iomega recommends that you connect no more than one additional device to the Zip 100, but in our test, we "daisy chained" three peripherals--a printer connected to a scanner connected to the Zip 100 connected to our PC--without encountering any device conflicts.

We used the included 1-Step Backup and 1-Step Restore utilities to back up and restore several hundred megabytes of an old Pentium's hard disk. The process was entirely intuitive and flawless but slow. We did not even approach the claimed 25-MB-per-minute performance, but that's just the way peripheral life is when you're using a parallel port.

The Zip 100 is self-contained, and if you take along the parallel cable and AC power supply, it becomes portable. However, the real convenience comes from the Zip disks themselves. The disks have a tough plastic shell and come in a CD-type jewel box, so little protective precautions are required as you exchange data with Zip-owning friends.

Pros

• Inexpensive
• Easy to install and use
• Portable
• Rewritable media

Cons

• Slow data-transfer rate
• Impractical for backing up more than a few hundred megabytes

Product Description
The award-winning Zip drive from Iomega offers reliable, unlimited, removable storage for all your computer storage needs. The external Zip drive serves as additional hard drive space, portable tape backup, or portable information server. It connects to the parallel port of your PC and offers the ability to share information from computer to computer. The Zip drive is perfect for storing special projects and presentations. It features 100MB capacity and a 29-millisecond average seek time. It has a 2945RPM rotational speed and 32K cache buffer. Additional features include parallel pass-through support, power and drive-busy indicator lights, user-definable automatic sleep model, 1.4MB/second sustained transfer rate and up to 25MB/minute typical throughput. The lightweight Zip drive uses 100MB Zip disks and is compatible with Windows 95, Windows 3.x, DOS, Mac OS and OS/2. With an estimated Zip disk shelf life of 10 years, you can be sure your special projects are protected.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful at certain times..., August 21, 1999

By A Customer

I think that this is a half-and-half deal. I mean, the drive has an acceptable price, but being someone who has to back up information frequently, this does the job better, but there are much cheaper drives out there. The disks are pretty expensive, though, anywhere from less than $10 to more than $15; it depends where you buy it and how many you buy. Iomega's tech support is ridiculous, however, you'll find that they charge about $25 each time you call for help. I would recommend the Jaz drive or Castlewood's 2.2 GB Drive (cheap, huge capacity).

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the most popular removable storage next to floppies, December 9, 1999

By	ODB (USA) - See all my reviews

I have enjoyed the convenience of my zip drive- My university's graphics computers have zip drives, the local Kinkos have zip drives in their computers, my parents even have a zip drive now. Its a nice, accepted standard, and for the price the disks read fast and work well- unlike 3.5 floppies, no zip disk has ever corrupted data for me. Zip disks are made of sturdy plastic which you can safely keep in your (shirt) pocket without damage.

The strongest competetitor to the zip disk standard is the 120 MB super-drive, which is a drive that is backwards-compatible with 1.6 MB (traditional)3.5 floppies, so you can totally replace your old floppy drive and still have it when you need it. A couple years ago it was expected that this drive would blow Iomega zip out of the picture, but super-floppies haven't really caught on.

In terms of exchanging data between computers in the same house, it is suprisingly simple to run an ethernet network instead- and there are other advantage besides transfering files- such as printer sharing and web sharing.

-Note. I think the zip 100 is more functional for the price than the 250 zip. -(For backing up really large files, the best thing these days is a cd writer or re-writer.)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If it's simple and works - then it's not stupid, June 8, 2000

By	Wayne Chung "c4ID" (Atlanta, US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Zip100 is a minimum necessity for today's larger and larger file formats - MPEG, MP3, and multiple images files can easily run up to 100MB. I've used the Zip since its inception when it knocked old Syquest 88MB drives out of business about 5 years ago. The size and convenience is why there is really only one choice for removable media with easy and immediate read-write capability.

There are definite pluses and minuses. Some will say get a CD-R(W) drive - but burning a CD is definitely not as immediate as a Zip. The parallel port is a major bummer because of the thru-speed. But those of you who are not major speed demons won't be disappointed compared to a floppy. The Zip drive allows daisy chaining so you can connect/output to other peripherals.

Iomega cut cost on the power on/off (it's always on when plugged in). But really the overall design is very good - you can place it flat or vertical. Even though the thick parallel cord may tend to twist the main unit.

There are a plethora of other Iomega choices. And I would really ask yourself if you are planning on USB or SCSI - each are noticeably faster. On the plus side, the 100MB format is so common in print shops, university labs, and copy places that you can't go wrong. Plus the price of each disk is recognizably less than the 250MB. Seriously think about your file formats. If you plan to do a lot video - you'll need to go with a Jaz. And you can get these refurbished for about the same cost and hold 1Gig. The only barrier to entry is the SCSI necessity and the extra cost of disks. Overall, the Zip100 has been a major workhorse for me - back and forth between work and home/Mac and PC MS98/NT. It has performed flawlessly.