I'm debating whether to get an external ZIP drive for my office. The only way it would ever be used is if someone came from outside with a ZIP disk (contractor, etc). But nowadays, what are the odds that that would even happen?

If they come prepared they may have a CD-ROM. Many people will be carrying data on a USB memory key, or use one if they need to get data from their notebook to you.

Even the people that are still using Zip disks should realize that most people are not using them anymore. It doesn't come standard with any PC or notebook, and most pc brands don't even offer them as upgrades. You really have to go out and buy one... And what about all their other products: Jaz, Rev, Clik, PocketZip, Peerless.

I think it's up to the person bringing the data to make sure ANY computer will be able to use it. Any USB attachment, CDROM, ... or Zip but bring his own drive...

Considering that Iomega lost almost $20 million last year because of declining sales of Zip drives, then the writing is on the wall!

The only fun with zip drives are the internal ones. They replace your floppy disk, and you can have 250 MB startup disks. Oh well, that fun is also over with bootable cds and dvds.

@ DarkPhoenix:

Very true. Now if only USB flash drives were bootable.....

Personally I like ZIP drives. Use em all the time.

BTW those USB "Thumb drives, Flash drives, Memory keys..." whatever you want to call them are/can be bootable as long as your bios will support booting to USB.

I've tried that, though unsuccessfully (my bios supports it). How'd you manage it?

Oh, and Zip disks:
They're expensive (both the drive and the media) and almost no one uses them anymore.

USB flash drivers are so bootable. My bios supports it.

look on dell support site, choose any D-family Latitude and all driver downloads and you'll find a link for what appears to be USB Memory Key drivers... no drivers there, but a wonderful usb key boot utility (mbrtool.exe). works on all keys

obviously this boots into dos, but you want to boot something else don't you.

This is a good article about USB stick booting:
http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

However there are two requirements:
1) The BIOS must support USB booting
2) The stick itself must be bootable

Another app, apart from BART's MKBT (which transfers and adapts a boot record) is BOOTPART :
http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
which actually creates it, wonderful utility for recover of problems booting, too.

I think that zips are still a very good thing to have around, I use them a lot, and they are pretty inexpensive (the media). I use them to make provisional backups of projects I am working on, as soon as the project is finished I burn it on a CD.

jaclaz

from the WinImage website:


This means you must have a HD with windows on it before you can boot your USB key. Or am I missing something in BootPart?

@jdeboeck

No, sorry, but you are missing a little bit.
A drive (it does not matter if floopy, zip, hard or pen) to be bootable needs to have a boot sector (sometimes referred to as boot record).
The boot sector holds two kinds of info:
1) A boot loader (i.e. a program that loads the operating system)
2) The partition table (i.e. how files are stored on the disk)

In older dos/win9x the bootsector's bootloader contained just a call to load the dos system files IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM.

In more recent OS's WinNT/2k/XP and Linux, the bootsector invokes an "intermediate" bootloader (NTLDR in WinNT/2K/XP) (LILO or Grub in Linux) that load a "settings" file (boot.ini in winNT/2k/XP) (lilo.conf or other in Linux) that gives the user the choice of how / what to boot.

Bootpart is just a nifty utility that can write (actually copying it from an image it has inside the executable) the bootsector's bootloader part for some standard operating systems:
MS-DOS 6.22
Windows 9x
Windows NT/2k/XP

leaving unmodified the partition table part.

To boot a drive (any drive) with win NT/2k/XP you need to have on the drive:
1) a bootsector bootloader part that loads NTLDR
2) the NTLDR (which calls BOOT.INI)
3) NTDETECT.COM (which actually loads the Operating system according to what you selected in boot.ini)

Of course before this, the BIOS must call the bootable drive, so if you haven't got an option in your Bios to boot from USB device, you cannot use this feature.

Hope the above clarifies the matter, here is some reference:
http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/13462/13462.html
http://www.pcplus.co.uk/tips/default.asp?p...ubsectionid=111
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/info/bootini.shtml

jaclaz

thank you... most helpful

I think Zip Drives are handy. I got one internal one, and an external USB powered one. I also have a USB Flash drive.

The USB flash is so handy for carrying around the big wide world, but as of yet it hasent replaced my zip drives. Unlike with a USB drive, when the disk is full, just eject it and insert the next, rather than having to take the USB drive backto the other machine, emptying it and returning again.

The external USB powered zip is quite portable anyway, much lighter than the parallel equivilants. USB Zip drive is hot swapable the same as a USB Flash drive, so both are quick and simple to me (other than on that shi*e called Windows 98).
I mentioned, Zip is handy for having removable disks, which is one of the reasons I still use it.

As much as I like the idea of it, niether Zip or Flash has yet replaced my floppy disk drive, needing to make boot disks all the time for those tacky Pentium II computers which can only run Windows 98 (groan) and crash in style (reguarly).

ummmm.....
0.0002% ?

Yup! that would be about the right odds.