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> Anyone out there experience some grief with a ZIP drive. I have a disk here
> that locks up the system once 50% of the disk is used. If I keep it under
> 50% it works, no knocking sound. If it's over 50% it knocks!
>
> Suggestions?
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Sorry about not not getting back to your post sooner (I forgot  :)

At any rate, some Iomega ZIP drives experience a problem refered to as "Click Death" (There have also been reports a few JAZ drives doing this too). So far nobody, has found a definite cause or solution. Some people believe that the rails that the head ride on become skewed (One guy said he opened his drive (voids warranty), and moved the rails back into their correct position), Some say it's the disks that are the problem (One guy said he put his ZIP disk in the freezer, let it thaw out, and it worked again.) I have two ZIP drives (one parallel, and one SCSI), and I haven't experienced this problem with either.

From what I've heard in other newsgroups, Iomega has been pretty good about replacing the defective drive.

VERY IMPORTANT -- Many of the people who experience this problem say that their disks become unusable (with both their "bad" drive and a known good one). If you write to a ZIP disk in a drive that is experiencing the "Click Death" problem, there is a posibility that it could corrupt your data by writing to the incorrect place (as with a skewed head). If you'd like to see some more info on this, go to the "Unofficial Iomega Click Death Homepage" at:


http://www.thirdeyesp.com/jatin/iomega/

They even have an 8 second .WAV file of what a drive affected with the "Click Death" problem sounds like.

See ya,




Leif Gregory
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