Iomega ZIP Drive 100 (PC Parallel Port version)
                       œ149.99 + V.A.T.

             A hardware review by Richard Hewison

I know SynTax doesn't often include hardware reviews, but this
device is gaining popularity all the time so I thought other readers
might be interested to know how the Iomega ZIP Drive performs.

Iomega have specialised in backup devices for a while now. The ZIP
drive is a different method of backing up data compared to a Tape
Streamer or Cartridge device. The ZIP drive takes 100Mb ZIP disks.
These look (at least superficially) like two 3.5" disks sandwiched
together and they can store up to 100Mb worth of data.  Compared to
tape streamers (250Mb upwards on a tape cartridge) the ZIP disks
don't look so useful. However, there are two factors in the ZIP
drive's favour. Firstly, the ZIP drive retails at just œ149.99 +
V.A.T., and the 100Mb disks only cost around œ13 + V.A.T. each (less
if you shop around or buy them in bulk).  Secondly, once you have
got your ZIP drive connected (more about this part later) your PC
will treat it like another hard disk. You can even install
applications to a formatted ZIP disk and run them directly from
there! This effectively turns the drive into a hard disk with
unlimited capacity (100Mb can be added just by buying another disk).

The drive itself comes in two versions for the PC. If you already
use a SCSI device and have a spare SCSI connector then you should
buy the SCSI version. It retails at the same price as the Parallel
port version and is supposed to be much faster too (access time and
data transfer rates). There are a few warnings about possible
compatibility problems with specific other SCSI devices so if you
have any doubts, contact Iomega first. If you don't have a SCSI port
then you should opt for the Parallel port version as I have.

The drive is about the size of an external Amiga or ST floppy drive
but with a little more bulk. It is dark blue in colour and has two
ports on the back and two lights on the front (power and disk
access). One of the ports is used as a 'through port' for your
Parallel printer cable. The other is for the Iomega cable which
plugs into the Parallel port on the back of your PC (where the
printer normally plugs in). The power supply is of the mini-brick
variety. The drive also has rubber feet stuck to the right hand side
so it can be placed in a standing position if required. I've got the
room on my work desk so it sits flat next to the Mini Tower without
any problems.

Installing the drive is very easy. You get two disks with it, one
for DOS & Windows 3.1 and one for Windows 95 only. Turn off the
power then connect the printer to the drive and the drive to the PC.
The ZIP drive must be powered on before your chosen OS kicks in, so
ideally it should be plugged in at the same time as your PC is
turned on (there is no on/off switch on the drive itself). Once your
machine has booted to DOS, run the GUEST program off the floppy
disk. This will temporarily assign a drive letter to the ZIP drive,
giving you immediate access to it without you having to physically
install any of the ZIP tool programs to your hard disk first. (This
makes it fairly easy for you to take the ZIP drive away with you and
plug it into someone else's PC and transfer data to and from the
machine via DOS without adding anything to that machine's hard disk
or changing its boot up files).  Now that your PC knows the drive is
present, you can install the other DOS programs from the 100Mb Tools
disk supplied as standard with the drive. This will also result in a
few new lines being added to your startup files (config.sys &
autoexec.bat) but they are only simple device = and set type
commands. The device driver takes up around 24k but Memmaker (or
Qemm if you have that) should be able to reconfigure your memory to
accommodate this.

The Tools disk also contains ZIP Tools for use under Windows.  These
allow you to perform a number of very useful actions. For starters,
you can catalogue each zip disk. This creates an MDB file which can
be explored using the drive's own FIND IT program or via Microsoft
Access (if you have it). You can also password protect each disk,
write protect each disk (there is no physical tab on the disks so
this *has* to be done through software) and make each disk removable
(like any other floppy disk) or non-removable (like a hard disk).
The latter two options are important if you want to install any
major applications to a ZIP disk and run them. Some programs won't
allow themselves to be installed to removable media, so by setting
the disk to be read as non-removable should fool it and allow the
installation to continue.  You can also rename and reformat ZIP
disks using these tools. When you buy a disk it comes pre-formatted
in either Macintosh or IBM PC format. It doesn't really matter which
one you buy though as you can reformat a Mac disk to IBM PC format
very easily (and vice versa).

Back in DOS, a ZIP disk is treated like another hard disk, so you
can copy, move, delete, deltree etc. just like you normally would.
The same can be said for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. The drive is
just assigned the next logical drive letter.

There is one possible drawback which should be pointed out. As I
mentioned at the start, the SCSI version is faster. The Parallel
port version runs in three different modes depending on the type of
processor and parallel port that your PC uses. To use the fastest
mode, your PC needs to have an Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP). If you
have one of these, the speed of transfer could be between 17Mb -
22Mb per minute. If you have a Bi-directional Parallel port then the
rate will be between 6Mb - 17Mb. If you have nothing other than a
standard parallel port then the rate will be between 2Mb - 6Mb per
minute. As you can see, the difference in performance can be quite
large!  Fortunately, I/O+Controller cards with Bi-directional and/or
EPP modes are quite cheap to buy (anything from œ14 - œ29 + V.A.T.).
I've tried my ZIP drive on two PCs. One with a normal port and one
with a Bi-directional port.  As a test, I copied onto a ZIP disk an
installed version of Doom II and ran it from the disk. On the normal
port it took nearly two and a half mins to load in, and the game
itself stuttered a few times (Doom II is particularly hard disk
intensive and so was considered by me to be a good test of the ZIP
disk's potential). The bi-directional port loaded the game in just 1
min 40 seconds and it didn't stutter much at all. In fact, with the
sound effects (but not the music) turned off it ran flawlessly. No
doubt EPP mode will be even better.

One other slight problem I've had with my ZIP drive is related to
the economy (sleep) mode. If the drive isn't used for a while, it
spins the motor down and will rest until accessed again. You can
amend the length of time the drive waits before sleeping, but it is
set to 15 mins by default.  However, my drive seems to go to sleep
after about 4 mins despite the Windows software telling me it is set
to 15. It doesn't cause any problems, but I don't think this part is
working properly.

If you have lots of data to store and you don't want to fill up your
hard disk or have hundreds of floppy disks cluttering up your home
then the ZIP drive is ideal. I would imagine that anything less than
an EPP I/O card or the SCSI version might prove to be a tad slow for
running applications directly (at least new ones anyway, old ones
like DPaint II for the PC run perfectly off a ZIP disk even on a
normal parallel port), but other than that this is one of the most
useful hardware additions I've made to my PC. All my sound files,
picture files, e-mail backups and emulator files have now been
transferred onto two ZIP disks and I've freed up over 100 floppy
disks in the process.

NB - The ZIP drive is also available for the Macintosh and the
Amiga.


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