The Zip disk  click of death syndrome has been documented in this months PC
World.

from Bugs and Fixes
This occurs when the drive's read head becomes misaligned leaving it unable
to find the Zip Disk's first track. The result is multiple clicks as the
read head mechanism reaches the end of its range. Not only are misaligned
drives unusable, but they can wreck good Zip disks you insert into them.

Iomega claims this is in less then one percent of Zip drives and will
replace any drive or disks effected. Of course this won't help you recover
lost data.

I have recently installed a Syquest EZdrive..270 MB....twice as fast....for
the same cost as a Zip. In fact they have a portable 1 gig version now for
200 dollars.

Mark
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->I will build and wonder if having a second
>>hard drive would be better than installing a
>>zip drive?
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 After reading many posts regarding the
>Zip drive's "click-of-death" syndrome, I would look at devices such as the
>Paul A. Shippert               Library/Media Specialist