At 14:10 -0500 01/18/2003, Bill Spencer wrote: >How do I use this thing? Is it useful or hopelessly out of date? Can I get >the disks (or whatever) that go in the front? Should I just pitch it? Do I >need to install software to be able to use it? I assume this is a backup >device only, one that is roomier than a floppy.
The ZIP drive is better than floppies as a back up device but just barely. First of all, it has the most expensive media that money can buy. At $5 - $10 per 100MB disk you're looking at $50 - $100 per gigabyte. Second, ZIP has a horrible reputation for reliability. Of course, most people do not experience catastrophic failures, or ZIP would be history, but that most is a much slimmer margin above 50% than for most other back up systems. A second hard drive with a 40 GB capacity and an IDE card to go with it would cost you much less than $200. Of course, if you don't have $200 or even $50 to spend, again, the ZIP is better than nothing. I think it would be cheaper in the long run to get a CDR drive-maybe second hand or one of those sales you have to get to Best Buy early in the morning to actually get one and use CDRs. You might be able to score one in the $50 range and at less than $1 a disk, those cost about $1.40 per GB. Again, if you can't afford a CDR, well the ZIP is still better than nothing. If you're really serious about having a back up system, get Retrospect software and a good tape drive with tapes whose capacity is close to your total disk capacity or larger. Unfortunately, a good tape system as described can cost more than your computer system. The problem with CDR and all other removable disk systems is that the media is too small. You must be present at some point in the process to swap the media. Most folks don't backup enough even when they own a system (hmmmm, I'm overdue to run my tape backup...) so you've got to make it as convenient as possible or you just won't do it. That means, being able to set it to run and let it go to completion without help from you (Retrospect will let you automate teh startup so you don't even have to start it up, but someone does have to make sure a tape (or whatever) is loaded). That means not needing to swap media. And that pretty much means using a tape drive, because they're the only devices that provide the capacity to back up today's huge hard drives. The ZIP's real purpose in life is to let you read disks from folks, who for some unfathomable reason have bought one of the things. If you want a removable media drive of similar utility for any reason besides compatibility with other people, you're much off with a 640 MB or 1.3 GB 3.5" Magneto Optical drive. The disks are about the same size, cost about $15 each and hold six to 13 times as much data. Plus the medium is extremely reliable compared to ZIP. Jeff Walther -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
