ZIP disks? ZIP drives?

[BonzaiDuck]

We're cleaning out old cyber-junk. Mom could get an episode on "Hoarders" and embarrass us all, but I also have a similar tendency.

She had computers in the late '90s fitted with ZIP drives -- Oh-so-wonderful for their 100MB+ capacity.

So we just discovered a box of five ZIP disks/discs in shrink-wrap. I ran a search at Newegg to see if they sold a USB ZIP drive, but -- no cigar!

Before I chuck these to the cyber-recycler, does anyone sell drives anymore that are compatible with ZIP disk/discs?

 

[DominionSeraph]

Amazon has a ton, though you're going to pay through the nose for one.

 

[corkyg]

I never liked Zips - went instead with LS120 and 240. I still have the drives installed and can access drawers full of those disks. Gradually, I have managed to copy most of them onto opticals. Also, I still have several boxes of 5.25-in floppies including those with original software. Someday they will all get pitched. They had their day.

That's the nature of the beast - Time marches on!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I never liked Zips - went instead with LS120 and 240. I still have the drives installed and can access drawers full of those disks. Gradually, I have managed to copy most of them onto opticals. Also, I still have several boxes of 5.25-in floppies including those with original software. Someday they will all get pitched. They had their day.

That's the nature of the beast - Time marches on!

That raises a painful memory. I'd done some econometric work using a system named RATS back in the late '80s. And I'd stored the work on some 5.25" 800KB floppies. With system upgrades through 1993, I'd forgotten to save one of those drives, and then I eventually had to chuck the disks. Maybe if I'd pursued some data recovery service . . . I dunno.

Anyway, it's not worth paying much of anything to use those virgin Zip disks. Couple hundred MB -- you can get an 8GB thumb drive for chump change.

I won't even bother running them by the GoodWill Industries. I'm just going to chuck them in the trash. I don't even think the county electronic recycling facility will take them. They want circuit boards, processors, HDDs.

 

[C1]

I agree. I help with church & garage sales & no one will touch a Zip Drive. Besides, they need to be installed (ie, they come with an installation disk). Zip Drives were noted not only for "the click of death", but they would simply screw up writes too.

Instead, Ive found the joys of RAMDISK. Turns out I noticed that all my machines including notebooks employ RAMDISK. I ordered some Verbatim 4X from NE and wow! They are very hardy (scratch resistant coated) and reasonably fast. I like them for saving intermediate files instead of cluttering my HDDs.

The issue with the USBs is you always gotta remove them from the notebooks when you pack up or else you risk damaging a port (eg, snap one off or even break the plastic separator inside the USB port. With RAMDISK, just leave the disk in the machine (very sleek/non-interference) and to remove the disk, you dont even have to start the computer, just use a paper clip and open the drive drawer via the emergency access all the optical drives employ.

Im finding 4.5Gb is quite sufficient for temp file/garbage collection space.

There's even two sided RAMDISK if you want the space.

Im tell'n ya, RAMDISK is not like packet writing or writing to WORM or DvDRW stuff. (That stuff screws up.)

RAMDISK is full random access R/W and has not screwed up on me yet. Seems to have all the checks and file write safety/sureity features of HDD.

 

[Sheep221]

I won't even bother running them by the GoodWill Industries. I'm just going to chuck them in the trash. I don't even think the county electronic recycling facility will take them. They want circuit boards, processors, HDDs.

They will take them at your electronic junkyard. But going there with bunch of drives is waste of time, so just throw them to trash idd.

 

[bryanl]

It may be worth selling it "as-is" on Ebay since some commercial and industrial users still need obsolete media for their very expensive proprietary software and equipment that wasn't designed for anything else.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I agree. I help with church & garage sales & no one will touch a Zip Drive. Besides, they need to be installed (ie, they come with an installation disk). Zip Drives were noted not only for "the click of death", but they would simply screw up writes too.

Instead, Ive found the joys of RAMDISK. Turns out I noticed that all my machines including notebooks employ RAMDISK. I ordered some Verbatim 4X from NE and wow! They are very hardy (scratch resistant coated) and reasonably fast. I like them for saving intermediate files instead of cluttering my HDDs.

The issue with the USBs is you always gotta remove them from the notebooks when you pack up or else you risk damaging a port (eg, snap one off or even break the plastic separator inside the USB port. With RAMDISK, just leave the disk in the machine (very sleek/non-interference) and to remove the disk, you dont even have to start the computer, just use a paper clip and open the drive drawer via the emergency access all the optical drives employ.

Im finding 4.5Gb is quite sufficient for temp file/garbage collection space.

There's even two sided RAMDISK if you want the space.

Im tell'n ya, RAMDISK is not like packet writing or writing to WORM or DvDRW stuff. (That stuff screws up.)

RAMDISK is full random access R/W and has not screwed up on me yet. Seems to have all the checks and file write safety/sureity features of HDD.

I think that you meant to say "DVD-RAM". "RAMDISK" is not a physical type of media, it's software that makes your volatile RAM act like a magnetic disk.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I'd chunk those things if I were you. I used to use the ls120 drives which were similar and they all went the way of the dinosaur. Why even bother when you can use a usb thumb drive with many times the capacity for next to nothing.

 

[Matt84]

Chuck them on Ebay, someone will probably buy them.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'd chunk those things if I were you. I used to use the ls120 drives which were similar and they all went the way of the dinosaur. Why even bother when you can use a usb thumb drive with many times the capacity for next to nothing.

Given the fact that USB drives can be hacked to deliver otherwise-invisible viruses (by infecting the USB device's actual hidden firmware, and not the stored filesystem), things like Zip disks that lack onboard firmware and processors, might just make a comeback.

Google "BADUSB" for more details.

 

[Lorne]

Have one in in closet puter junk box, IDE.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well a virus can be placed on any form of media so without any safeguards in place it matters not which one you use.