Re: Zip click-death Update

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Joseph Lee writes ...
> 
> ....
> 
> If it's so rare.. I wouldn't be hearing it happening to so many
> people I know personally, especially myself. :P
>


     Below is a moderately scary article excerpt from 

http://www.macfixit.com/archives/march98-b.shtml .


>>

The Iomega "Click of Death" and disk drive formatting utilities
              .
We have previously reported on the debate as to whether drive formatting
utilities other than Iomega Tools can safely be used
to format Zip and/Jaz cartridges. In this regard, a reader reports a
recent correspondence with Iomega Tech Support that
suggests that the Click of Death may result by using other drivers.
Others have disagreed. While we have covered this general
territory before, it seems worth a new look in light of recent coverage
of the Click of Death:

"Any other driver that talks to the drive doesn't know about the Zero
Track Directory; this is where the drive stores bad track
info. For example, if you pop in a Zip disk and get the "Can't read
disk, initialize?" notice, and you let it initialize, this erases the
ZTrack and leaves you open to problems down the road. If you do this by
mistake, you should use the Iomega Tools utility to
reinitialize the disk.
....

<<

     This appears to mean that any Zip disk which is low-level formatted
(takes about 9 minutes) on a GS is at risk for causing the Click of
Death because the Zero Track is not handled correctly. If this is true,
then it is okay to partition Zip disks (takes about 30 seconds); but,
they should not be reformatted on anything but a machine which can run
the Iomega Disk Utilities.


 
Rubywand