[Vanity] (Much to simple) computer question that I'm confused about...Help please!

February 4, 2003 | S_S29

[boris]

"I back up data on an Iomega Zip 250 drive. Each floppy (if they could be referred to that) hold 250 MB (mega-bites) of data. The Zip Drive comes with it's own back-up software for periodical, schedueled data back-ups to save all data or ust important files."

Iomega products are (ahem) extremely unreliable. I will never purchase another. I have had click-of-death with both Zip and Jaz Drives. The company I work for is abandoning all Iomega products for DVDs. At home, I had to work through four separate and distinct product returns before I got a functioning drive--and had to write the president of the company twice. Here are the letters I sent to Iomega:

============================

May 17, 2000

Mr. Bruce R. Albertson
President
Iomega Corporation
1821 West Iomega Way
Roy, Utah 84067

Dear Mr. Albertson:
I am enclosing an e-mail thread I have had with your technical support department concerning serious problems I am having with a 2-Gigabyte JAZ drive and cartridges.

Evidently, I offended your technical support people by mentioning “JAZ”, “Click of Death”, and “Gibson Research”. I consulted both Iomega and Gibson as I strove to resolve my problems. As you will note from the e-mail, I have made a determined effort to solve the problem myself. I performed all of the tests and procedures suggested by BOTH Iomega and Gibson, and have now invested many hours—including most of a Saturday—on this problem.

As of now, I am certain that either the JAZ drive itself is defective or that all three brand-new JAZ cartridges I recently purchased are defective—possibly both. I have been a loyal customer and user of Iomega products for years. I own a JAZ and two Zips, and use both a JAZ and Zip at work.

I am a very knowledgeable user. I program in many languages, including Assembly language. I have written and sold commercial software in the area of computer graphics. I am a past president and newsletter editor of my company computer club. My employer is {bleep}, and I am considered an expert on the subject of PCs and peripherals by everyone there—from the Division president down. I am telling you this because my opinion carries some weight with over 5,700 people. After my experience with the JAZ drive and media and your technical support department, I will no longer recommend your products. In fact I will actively work to make certain that as many people as possible hear about this matter. In my opinion, the support I have received is shameful.

I have already invested too much time and effort upon resolving what should be a reasonably straightforward matter. So I am requesting once again that you provide some means of resolving it. Ideally I would like an RMA and a replacement JAZ, and/or replacements for the 3-pack of JAZ disks that appear to be part of the problem.

Thank you for your time.

============================

May 27, 2000

Mr. Bruce R. Albertson
President
Iomega Corporation
1821 West Iomega Way
Roy, Utah 84067

Dear Mr. Albertson:

I wrote you recently about problems I was having with Iomega’s technical support. Soon after I wrote, I received an RMA for my defective JAZ drive (RMA 6393610). I received a “remanufactured” replacement JAZ drive and an apology from one of your staff.

Unfortunately, the replacement drive issued under RMA # 693610 is also defective. The drive rejects every JAZ cartridge inserted into it. I examined the drive and heard a rattling noise inside. Tilting the drive with the door open caused a small metal part to fall out, which upon inspection appears to be a part of the drive hub. I have saved the part and affixed it to the outside of defective replacement drive with scotch tape.

Please arrange yet another RMA for the defective replacement drive, which has serial number X13V330135.

In this case, I would certainly like the replacement for the replacement to be a brand-new (not remanufactured) drive, one that works (assuming that your company is capable of making such a product).

One more thing: the replacement was issued as a “hot swap”, which means that Iomega has my credit card number. I have no intention of returning either the original defective drive OR the defective replacement drive until I receive one that works. Please DO NOT charge my credit card, which I provided in order to obtain the hot-swap.

[KriegerGeist]

I agree that Iomega Zip & Jazz drives are old technology now in the days of CD-R / CD-RW drives. The CD-R blank discs are under $1.00 a piece (which cannot be said for Zip floppys). There is even a drive by HP (Hewlett Packard) that is a CD-R - CD-RW & DVD-ROM all in one and receives a very high rating from all the compouter magazines.

I also would not get a computer with, nor install another Iomega product (Zip or Jazz). I would go with the "CD" technology.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Ok...Let me try to word this right. ;*)

Something was able to fry (reconfigure) my BIOS settings; the end result was the motherboard was no longer able to process any information on my computer. There was a period of systemic shut-downs and other signals leading up to a complete failure. My partitions were no longer active. Matter of fact, when I was searching in the system settings, I would find that sometimes I had active partitions, other times would show only an active DOS shell. Upon exploring this further, I had messages stating something to the effect of "partitions deleted and data not available".

FWIW, the power supply, surge protecter, etc. have been ruled out as the cause. Thinking the problem was the actual hard drive, I purchased and re-installed another. When that didn't work, figuring I had installed it incorrectly, the BIOS needed to be reset, or whatever; I took the entire CPU to be checked over. The bottom line was that it would be in my best interest to replace the entire system rather then attempt repairs.

Thus, I bought, So-- What I'm trying to figure out is how to *save the vital information to disk* in the event that (God forbid) something similiar happens again.
My head is swimming. I was under the impression that I just had to insert the floppy into the drive, hit some keys and my information would be safe. Is it not as simple as I had thought?

Just damn.

I'm hoping that if I repost this again, I'm going to make more sense and someone will be able to help me out.

Focault's Pendulum-- Old system was an IBM Aptiva E series, OS was Win98, 64 MB/8 GB about 4 years old. I no longer have the CPU, kept the monitor and keyboard. My son wants 'em.
The new is an HP Pavillion, OS is WinXP- 256 MB/80 GB.

I do appreciate the suggestions!

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Thank you for the links; very interesting and helpful!

[boris]

"There is even a drive by HP (Hewlett Packard) that is a CD-R - CD-RW & DVD-ROM all in one and receives a very high rating from all the compouter magazines."

Ah, but what do the Interositer magazines say about it?

[occam's chainsaw]

Get a new surge protector, an expensive one, not junk.

A few quick words of advice - the joule rating is the most important factor here. The higher the joule rating, the better the surge protector. Don't be fooled into paying more for a surge protector just because it has pretty gold connectors.

I highly recommend reading this article.

[Focault's Pendulum]

I really hate to tell you this...especially after you went out and bought a new system....but I have software on a little ole' floppy that would have reconfigured your BIOS back to it's original settings.
A format of your original hard drive, along with a new partition would have stood an %85 chance of a full recovery.

Also... the reason I asked about your old system, is because, I accept donations of parts. I work in a financially depressed area of SOuth Jersey. The people here can't afford squat. So what I do is cobble pieces together and make workable...albeit slower systems. I give them Net Zero access for ten hours or so a month free...and then give away the systems to families with kids. Of course I load up FR as their home page....hehehe.
Hope all goes well with your new system...any probs, feel free to contact me.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

I really hate to tell you this...especially after you went out and bought a new system....but I have software on a little ole' floppy that would have reconfigured your BIOS back to it's original settings.

That's good to know, just 'in case'.

However...just between you and me, even if I had known that, I'd still have insisted to Mr. S_S29 that 'the IBM was damaged beyond repair and a new computer was in order'.

/wink-wink-nudge>

[gd124]

I know this is off topic, but I remember reading in New Scientist a couple of years back that new floppies had been invented which could hold at least 1 hundred megabytes and still read normal floppies. Does anyone know what happened to that idea?

[KriegerGeist]

"I know this is off topic, but I remember reading in New Scientist a couple of years back that new floppies had been invented which could hold at least 1 hundred megabytes and still read normal floppies. Does anyone know what happened to that idea?"

You miust have read that article quite awhile ago.
That article would be referring to the "LS-120 drive by Imation".
The drive would read and write 120MB to a type of hard floppy, but would also read/write to a 3.5" 1.44MB floppy.

I don't think they went over very big, but you can read them here:

Link to Imation LS-120 drive info

[gd124]

Imation still makes them in 120 and 240 meg size: http://www.imation.com/en_US/product.jhtml?Id=IM_FAM122

It's a pity they're not more widespread. Zip discs and cdr or cdrw are too fussy for quick storage or transportation.

[boris]

"Better still; get a Mac - we don't get viri. It just doesn't happens."

I hear some Mac users are actually capable of learning sentence structure and grammar--with sufficient practise.

--Boris