Zip Drives.... and the people who love them

I was just curious about something. I have a CDRW and zip at work , and I really hate zip drives. Why would anyone given the choice of a zip or a cd choose the zip. Anyway I dont like them. Wanna know what you think.

Windows Hardware 9627 This topic was started by ,


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I was just curious about something. I have a CDRW and zip at work , and I really hate zip drives. Why would anyone given the choice of a zip or a cd choose the zip. Anyway I dont like them. Wanna know what you think.

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192 Posts
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Should have an option of CDRW option in the poll... =)

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3857 Posts
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I have a zip drive in case anybody brings one in, but other than that I don't mess with it. It would be fine for moving large files that you don't want to burn, but the disks are expensive and my IDE zip drive at home is dead.

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391 Posts
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Hey FatFish, I belive the "$6 a disk, what do you think?" option sas it all

data/avatar/default/avatar12.webp

1915 Posts
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OP
I have all the free ones I could ever stomach. Unfortunately the Army uses them so much I am forced to use them

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748 Posts
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$6?? I wish - here in the UK, they cost somewhere between £8 & £12 (that's about $12-$18)...compare that to 50p per CD-R
And the added advantage is that almost every PC comes fitted with a CD drive; not all of them have Zip drives!
 
No competition - CD-R all the way
 
AndyF

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690 Posts
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ZIP drives used to be good, back in the days when CD-R was way too expensive and CD-RW didn't exist at all. That was back when I had my Amiga 1200 though (actually I still have that - must add it to my sig sometime...)

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1207 Posts
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Couldn't live without my Internal SCSI ZIP100.
If I could only source a 250MB Internal SCSI I'd get me one of those as a replacement, but they seem to be as rare as "Hen's Teeth"

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3087 Posts
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I have a USB Zip100, one of those redesigned versions. I really don't use it much, since I have a CD-Burner--which doesn't do much more than back up my stuff. Hell, I use my floppy drive more often than I use my Zip drive. Quicken fits on a floppy quite nicely.

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137 Posts
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I like Zip Drives.
 
Though their practibility is not credible due to the fact that not many people use/have zip drives.
 
They are practible in the sense, that you do not need burning software, they are quick to erase, add new files. Generally i find them a lot more easy to use, don't have to worry about scraching your RWCD.
 
Everyone would like them and use them if they just had've replaced floppies with them, seriously i can't believe the floppy drive has been hanging around so long. 1.44mb of Storage, Grouse Man:D!!!
 
Zip drives could've and should've replaced floppy drives by now.
 
But as things work out, CD-RW is definatley the way to go because all new computers have a CD drive, like someone mentioned earlier.
 
Cheers,

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450 Posts
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I love parallel port Zip drive because I can move it around to any computer. Very handy with laptops or standard office workstations which have no cd writer (99% of them).
They are also very commonly used in the graphics industry to exchange files, modify them and send back to customer.
Do not think of it as a home gadget but rather as a portable professional tool.
If it helps for better productivity, then it's good.

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137 Posts
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Quote:

Parallel ones are even easier... USB ones? Simplest, they have those now too!

I too, cannot believe the zip has not replaced the floppy...

APK

I have an IDE 100mb drive for the desktop & USB/PCMIA 250mb external Zip Drive for the Laptop.

It is absolutley the best and most practicle way to take backups for the laptop.
I have no faith in CD-RW Drives for laptops, they are probably more reliable nowadays though my past experiences have been sour.

I did not take long to replace the 5.5inch floppy drives.
I dread good ol' 1.44mb floppy's will be around for yonks yet, unless Sony's new 3.5in. 100mb floppy drive could become more universally acceptable, i don't have one, how do they measure up to the Zip drive (Apart from 150mb difference in newer Zip Drives).

And whats' the deal with JAZZ drives, isn't that a little excessive? Geez, i guess they were saying the same thing about floppys 15 years ago. Hmmm. who could ever need 1.4mb of storage space, hmmm... (Sorry 750k back then, right?)

Cheers,

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I use them for migrating data to stand alone machines, a lot of them don't have CDroms in a business environment, since it cuts down on expense. Also, I use one at home for working on customers machines, since a lot of them don't have them either... I have the USB and serial variety...