> COD (Click-of-Death) is a head indexing/alignment problem and shouldnot cause physical damage to disks.
No, no, no. COD is notorious for destroying disks. That's why Iomega offers (or offered) free replacement disks to COD victims.
When I last researched this issue I found that in the normal sequence of events a Zip drive requires that the read/write head be retracted to a physical stop-location from which it then indexes to locate the center of the formatted "drums" or data tracks. After the alignment of a failing drive exceeds some tolerable deviation it begins to determine that the indexed location doesn't result in the head landing in the center of the track so the index cycle is repeated. This is the repetitive click the user hears. If you listen to a good drive you'll hear the same audible signature but only one such cycle on occasion. This indexing does no damage to the disk.
There have been several DIY repairs list on the WWW for modifying the index stop in an effort to re-align the drive heads. Iomega boldly promised that they would make good on all drives which developed COD. That commitment was wrt drives manufactured prior to the promise; however, they continue to exchange good for bad when the right buttons are pushed. Iomega is one of the few companies that know the value of public relations.
Before the misalignment condition degrades to the extent that the process repeats (COD), the drive is likely to have written to track locations in a manner that is out of specification, effectively destroying the media format at those locations. That format damage is the only damage done to the disk and that is not physical damage in the sense of the damage that a head-crash may cause.
This is the reason why, early on, users thought that COD was contagious. When a mis-formatted or corrupted-format disk is placed in a good drive, it will cause the good drive to *exhibit* the COD symptoms. The good drive tries to make sense of the off-centered data track by checking its index over and over.
If disk media is physically damaged, there is more than just COD at work. COD-damaged disks likely can be bulk-degaussed and re-formatted. Children, do not try this at home. ;-) Always return your disks for a replacement. Iomega makes good because that $10 item probably cost less than a dollar to manufacture. Their reputation is worth more than a buck. Not sure what other media manufacturers' policies are.
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