Zip drive reliability

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Ken,
The reliability factor for zip disks was only clouded by the infamous
"Click of Death" for these drives.
'Click Of Death' (http://grc.com/tip/codfaq1.htm)

The relationship between your back up media and the importance of the
data, suggests that more than one type of back-up is needed.

May I suggest a DVD or CD burner. They're cheap, easy to install, and
hold much more data than a zip disk.
BTW, I have about 35 zip disks with old data on them, and no drives in
any of my three computers to use them. Same with the Imation LS120
floppy drive, about 14X faster than a regular floppy drive, 120mb. of
storage. The USB keys have killed that one too.

As far as the future . . . who knows what file types will be readable
or backwards compatable?
Just some food for thought.
Best,
Treeman


--
Treeman


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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Ken Knecht <kenkknot@deruknot.com> wrote:
> If any of you are using Zip disks for any length of time, how do you find
> their reliability? I have files backed up to Zip daily that I'd rather not
> lose. So far, so good. No errors. 1000% better than floppy.

true, better than floppies. I like them for doing end-of-the-day backups
of my active projects. Run a batch file that uses Winzip command lines,
to create/update a .zip on the Zip disk. Takes 20 seconds and I'm out the
door. Good safety net, even when the machines are auto-backed-up by the
network each nite. And real easy to take work home with you.

The only problem is the DISKS themselves, like floppies they develop bad
spots over time (years), and you need to chuck them.

I would not rely on a ZIP drive as my primary backup device, but as a
quick and dirty "sneaker net" tool they work fine.