External Zip Drive Not Working Anymore

  • Thread starter Thread starter Helen Arnoldus
  • Start date Start date
H

Helen Arnoldus

I have an external Iomega 250 mg. drive connected to a USB port. All of a
sudden it isn't working anymore. I'm getting a lot of error messages
including runtime errors. I'm running XP Home SP2. What could be causing
this?
 
I have an external Iomega 250 mg. drive connected to a USB port. All of a
sudden it isn't working anymore. I'm getting a lot of error messages
including runtime errors. I'm running XP Home SP2. What could be causing
this?
Click to expand...

Try using the drive on another computer. If the result is the same,
the drive may be defective, however, if it works OK, that may indicate
a problem with your USB port or its drivers.
 
I tried using this drive on 2 other computers and the same thing occurs. I
went out and bought another Zip drive and it's still happening, but only on
certain zip disks. I tried the new drive on another computer and again the
same thing happens, only some disks will read. On some of the ones that wont
read, I get a message to insert disk or I get a "Parameter Incorrect"
message. What is going on? All my disks worked last week. Why are some
working and not the others? I would like to transfer all my backup files on
these disks to cd's, but now it looks like I can only do half.
 
I tried using this drive on 2 other computers and the same thing occurs. I
went out and bought another Zip drive and it's still happening, but only on
certain zip disks. I tried the new drive on another computer and again the
same thing happens, only some disks will read. On some of the ones that wont
read, I get a message to insert disk or I get a "Parameter Incorrect"
message. What is going on? All my disks worked last week. Why are some
working and not the others? I would like to transfer all my backup files on
these disks to cd's, but now it looks like I can only do half.
Click to expand...

It sounds like some of your Iomega disks have become corrupted. I've
had this happen to me several times on various Iomega drives that I've
owned. Really not much you can do to recover data from those disks if
they've gone bad. You might want to try running the Iomegaware
utilities to see if any of the disks can be repaired. You may wind up
having to reformat the bad disks. Even then, they still may not work
correctly.

I've quit using Iomega drives\disks for backup and or to store data
for that reason. It's probably best to use either CDs or DVDs to
store your data or for backup as they are more durable. Besides, you
can store more data to a CD and even more to a DVD. Hopefully you can
return the new drive for a full refund.
 
How can zip disks get corrupted in so short a time? I used some of them just
the other day and they worked fine. I transferred all the files on the disks
that did work to cd's and am now giving up on Zip disks. I'm just a little
upset about the other disks that won't work. I reconnected my old Zip disk
drive and it works just like the new one or should I say it doesn't work
like the new one, so it's definitely not the drive. I'll return the new
drive tomorrow for a refund.

Thanks for your help.
 
How can zip disks get corrupted in so short a time? I used some of them just
the other day and they worked fine. I transferred all the files on the disks
that did work to cd's and am now giving up on Zip disks. I'm just a little
upset about the other disks that won't work. I reconnected my old Zip disk
drive and it works just like the new one or should I say it doesn't work
like the new one, so it's definitely not the drive. I'll return the new
drive tomorrow for a refund.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

It's been many years since the zip drive failure fiasco, however I do
remember that a bad zip disk inserted into a good zip drive will
result in a bad zip drive. And, vice versa.
Try a google search on Iomega zip drives for discussions about 4 years
ago.
 
I'm trashing the zip drive. I don't have anymore patience dealing with this
anymore. I transferred data from 9 good disks to cd's. The other 7 are
useless. It's too bad because I had a lot of digitial photos saved on these
disks.

Is it possible that I may be returning a bad zip drive since I had corrupted
disks in it?
 
I got Zip drives several years ago, when they first came out. They were
great in the days when CD burners either were not available to normal
consumers, or were too expensive. I had both an internal and external
100MB zip disk. The external one finally developed the "click of death,"
which means it's literally dead. The internal Zip drive still works, but
there is no need to use it any more.

In 2000 we found a CD burner that was affordable, and immediately
removed the zip drive. Since then, the CD burner has been replaced by a
DVD burner.

Cd's and DVD's are universal. Just about everyone has a CD ROM drive,
and many people have DVD ROM drives. On the other hand, chances are you
know many people who don't have zip drives, so you can't share your data
with them.
 
Back
Top