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Tuesday, May 5, 1998 Special Note: IOM in Fooldom Today will be discontinued Friday, May 8, 1998. We'd like to encourage all our readers to join "Iomega in Fooldom Right Now" -- happening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in our Iomega message folders. If you dig Iomega, hate Iomega, or just want to see what everyone else has to say, that's the place to be -- please drop by! Thanks Fools. Monday, Iomega closed at $7 15/16, up $3/16 (+2.42%) TODAY'S RECAP: Posters on the message board yesterday became fixated on the new techincal specifications released about the ZipPlus drive and on the Norton Zip Rescue program -- whether it works or not. Some posters continued the discussion about failure rates while others looked at the forthcoming release of the Sony drive (competition for the Zip) and its potential impact on Zip sales. Enjoy! INDEX: Use the Search or Find feature of your word processor to locate the article number (Find: 1++, 3++, etc.) - or use AOL's Edit>>Find in Top Window Feature. If Find in Top Window is dimmed, just click on some text, anything, in the IOM Today window and try again.
1++ Weaselboy2 reviews do-it-all utility programs and Norton Zip Rescue
Recap written and posts compiled by TMF
Weekly. _______________________________ And now, the Best of the Board...Started 9:00pm ET 5/3/98. 1+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: ..let's bring it on!!.. << ...Norton Zip Rescue -- Zip to the Rescue If your Windows 95-based system has an Iomega Zip drive, Norton Zip Rescue offers you a quick and easy non-DOS disaster recovery alternative... >> I'd like to weigh in quickly here on the Norton Zip Rescue. Recently, I thought it would be a good idea to buy one of those utility programs for my computer at work. First I bought Nuts & Bolts I had read a few articles saying NZR was a pain). It looks like a good idea (Lots of cool stuff-registry editor, encryption, zip files, prevent crashes etc.) but it uses too much system resources (bogs system down) and seems to find problems you never knew you had. It's maddening...it is constantly popping up witherror messages...won't ever leave you alone. Finally I gave up on it and uninstalled it. Being a sucker for cool-looking software, I decided to give Norton Zip Rescue a try after all. In all fairness, I installed it during a period I was having all sorts of problems with my computer (losing a hard drive being the worst). While creating the Zip Rescue disk, I got an error message saying the disk was messed up. Up until that moment, I had never had a single problem with a Zip drive or a Zip disc. I tried to use Norton Disk Doctor to repairit and the messages started getting scarier and scarier. I ended up with the dreaded "Click of Death". Gateway told me (and I'm not 100% convinced of any of this) that: (a) The drive was bad, (b) Any disks that were used in the "bad drive" (if it was bad) should NOT be used in ANY drive as they could damage THAT drive and I ended up throwing out about $75 worth of disks.This experience pretty much convinced me that the "Click ofDeath" is primarily a software-related problem-depite what Gateway told me. At that point I decided not to take any more chances and vowed NEVER to use any of the do-all utility programs ever again. They use up too many system resources, they find problems that don't exist and I'm convinced that they (at least NZR) may contribute to the "Click of Death". My personal opinion is that, with Windows-based systems, simplicity is the best. 2+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Zip+ As good as dead With Iom's recent revision of guidelines for the Zip+ I don't see any reason to keep the product alive any longer. Especially given that one of the main arguments put forth was Its use by Mac People to be able to move the Zip+ to a PC if needed. Most of the people buying Hardware or Software for orginanzations are extremely plugged into what's happening (The info below is all over the place now on the web). There is no way that these folks will be recommending (If they ever did) to Anyone that they buy a Zip+. While the new guidelines do not effect the ability to move a zip from a Mac to a PC using the AutoDetect feature. The other limitations make the Zip+ a much less Interesting prospect. As to your average retail buyer? This info will go out in the magazines that folks read and I doubt if they will be buying Zip+ any longer. Once a product is tied to a problem with 'lost or corupted data' people tend to look elsewhere than take a chance. Now not only Is the plus over priced but it now apparently only works in a limited fashion (no daisy chains and no Notebooks). From a couple of sources on the Web: MacinTouch: Iomega has updated its specifications for the Zip Plus drive, saying it is not PowerBook compatible and also "may compromise the integrity of your data" when used on any multiple-device SCSI chain. MacWeek: http://www.zdnet.com/macweek/mw_1217/nw_iomega.html The company said the problem is due to the $199 drives proprietary AutoDetect circuitry, which supports parallel or SCSI connections from a single 25-pin connector (see 09.08.97, Page 39). Iomega said the drive should be used only with the AutoDetect cable that ships with it and not with other cables or adapters. The drive should be the sole external device on a SCSI chain and not connected with other SCSI drives. The compatibility problem also precludes the drives use with PowerBooks, which have a special SCSI adapter cable. Users can request a new manual at (888) 446-6342 or from the company's Web site at http://www.iomega.com. 3+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: ..let's bring it on!!.. I posted a fairly detailed message here some time ago about Norton Zip Rescue, a new feature in Norton Utilities version 3.0 for Windows 95. As soon as I installed this version, I got real strange looking file names when viewing folders on a zip disk using Windows Explorer. Further, no matter which zip disk I inserted Explorer showed the SAME folders!! I immediately called Symantec and asked them what the hell was going on. They said they knew about the problem. It seems that a zip driver included in their software was corrupted and they had no clue as to how that happened. I was advised to do one of two things: o Do an immediate on-line live update (built in to Norton Utilities) o Reinstall my zip software from my original installation/tools disks I chose to do the latter because, at that time, I didn't trust anything. After reinstalling the zip software, everything worked perfectly. This was, I'm guessing, 4 - 5 months ago. No doubt the latest Norton Utilities has a driver that is not corrupted. By the way, the zip disk that was showing all the strange files names STILL showed the same strange names even after installing the correct software. Somehow, the data on that particular disk was simply hosed....that's what really upset me. It turned out that losing that particular data was no big deal. However, I simply reformated the zip disk and it's as good as new. Mark, you might try reinstalling the original zip software like I did and it may just fix everything. p.s. After two or three Norton Utilities live updates I have quit reinstalling my zip software and everything is fine now. 4+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: drive problems? Just to add to the "perception" question.... With at least a half dozen Jaz drives (including my new Jaz2) and about 30 Zip drives amongst my group and in my own personal use, over the time frame of just on 3 years for the earliest dozen Zips or so, as far as I am aware there has been only a single bad cable right out of the box as a problem of any sort. In the same time frame I have lost count of the number of blown up hard drives, floppy drives, and entire computers we have experienced. The most recent was one of our Quantex PCs in the lab which spontaneously self-destructed a couple of weeks ago, and actually filled the lab with thick smoke, necessitating a visit from our fire department. Maybe we should start rumors of the infamous "Smoking Death" for Quantex PCs.... Just for balance, recently I found that a Zip disk which I used to store data from my PowerBook 3400 would not be read using the internal Zip on my son's Performa 6400. I transferred the files to a new Zip disk on the PowerBook, and that one worked perfectly on the Performa. Then I re-formatted the original "bad" disk, and tried it again, and this time it too worked perfectly.... Now I have no problem personally with this sort of happening, since I personally believe in magic.... :-). 5+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: (?) Re: Sony is Solid Conpetition I would start taking Sony HiFd drives seriously when and if someone can publicly and successfully demonstrate: 1. A high capacity prototype drive that could be verified to operate on 200MB disks (should be easy to verify the 200MB capacity by some commonly known utility programs), AND also Read, Write and Format some randomly selected (selected or provided by observers) Any Brand Regular 1.44MB disks. On the 1.44MB compatibility issue (not that I think it is an important function, but that seems to be what they are touting as the main attractive feature of the Sony HiFD drive), they should show: Cross Testing: Cross Testing 1.44MB disk operations between the Sony HiFd prototype drive and a Regular floppy drive by: (a) A Regular 1.44MB disk that was formatted and written on by a Regular flopy drive, to demonstrate if the Sony HiFd drive can read that disk, re-write on that disk (using some DOS bootable files for a later boot test) and then read it by either drive without problems, and can boot up the computer with that disk from either drive; And, (b) A Regular 1.44MB disk that was formatted and written on by the Sony HiFd prototype drive, to demonstrate if a Regular floppy drive can read that disk, re-write over that disk (with some DOS bootable files for a later boot test) and then read it by either drive without problems, and can boot up the computer from that disk with either drive. 2. The Sony prototype drive should also be able to boot up the computer with either a 200MB disk or a 1.44MB disk. Not that I know anything in particular, I just thought that those would be some tests that I like to see before I would respond further. So far, I haven't heard or read any eyewitness or even second-hand reports detailing Demonstrations (public or private) of some or most of the above capabilities. Only Claims on the 1.44MB compatibility. But that may be just me. If someone knows anything different, please post, let us know and enlighten us. Thank you very much in advance. Just a lay person's humble opinions. As "usaul", I may be wrong. _______________________________
End Report. Posts covered through 9:00pm ET 5/4/98
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