Iomega Pushes Zip Drive Storage to 750MB

Drive triples the storage and hits twice the speed of old Zip Drives, but will CD-RW lovers care?

Tom Mainelli, PCWorld.com

Tired of slicing and dicing your backups into 100MB or 250MB chunks to fit on your Zip disks? No need anymore: Iomega is shipping its first 750MB drive on Thursday.

Using a USB 2.0 interface, this external drive offers data rates comparable to a still-theoretical 50X/50X/50X CD-RW drive, according to the company. That means it could write to archive, rewrite, and read at 50X speeds (about 7.5 MB per second). Iomega's USB 2.0 drive sells for $179; 750MB disks sell for about $12.50 each if you buy them in an eight-pack.

High-speed backups, plus the venerable Zip disk cartridge's rugged dependability, should make the new drive a good alternative to the nearly ubiquitous CD-RW drives, say company executives. An industry analyst agrees, and says he expects Iomega's numerous and loyal fans to embrace the new technology.

Faster, Bigger

In order to squeeze more data onto a disk the same size as Iomega's existing 100MB and 250MB products, engineers worked to improve dramatically the track density of its flexible media, says David Greenhalgh, worldwide product manager, future products.

In addition, the company improved the drive's internal transfer processes, including its chip set, software algorithms, and channel efficiencies. To utilize USB 2.0's faster throughput, the drive also spins the flexible media inside the cartridge considerably faster than the older units did, resulting in the maximum throughput of up to 7.5 MB per second, he says.

As with previous Zip upgrades, the new drive can read existing 250MB and 100MB disks. However, it can write only to the 250MB versions, not the 100MB variety. And as with the 250MB version, writing to the preceding generation of media should be a painfully slow process.

Despite using USB 2.0, which can draw power from the PC, the new drive requires a separate power supply, he notes. That's because the drive needs more juice to operate than the USB 2.0 specification allows vendors to draw through the port. Iomega hopes eventually to eliminate the need for the power cord, he says.

Besides the new USB 2.0 drive, Iomega plans to roll out several other versions of the drive in coming months. A Zip 750MB FireWire drive is scheduled to ship this fall priced about $200, and an internal ATAPI version will be available for about $150.

Battling CD-RW

Iomega doesn't expect its new drive to beat out the CD-RW drive for desktop supremacy, says Tim Dammon, product general manager, front office storage. "At one time in Iomega's life it may have tried to kill the CD-RW drive, but not anymore," he says.

Instead, the company wants to coexist with that technology, which generally holds about 650MB of data per disc. In fact, Iomega itself has a thriving external CD-RW drive business, Dammon says.

One of CD-RW's biggest advantages is the low cost of media. You can buy CD-R discs for pennies apiece in bulk, and CD-RW discs often cost less than $1 each. Dammon also admits that certain applications will always work better with CD-RW drives. For example, you're never going to see a Zip drive in your car for playing audio.

But for other jobs, the Zip's ease of use and reliability make it a clear winner, he says. For critical information you absolutely must protect, you should consider a Zip drive, he says. (PCWorld.com noted that Iomega's 250MB drive "handles limited amounts of data but does it well," in our recent "Ultimate Backup Guide.")

Loyal Customers

Many people will give the new Zip drive a try, says Wolfgang Schlichting, research manager of removable storage at IDC. Schlichting expects Iomega's new drive to appeal to a great many PC users.

"Clearly CD-RW is quite well entrenched, and I don't think they will reverse the fact that CD-RW has become the de facto standard on the home desktop," he says. "But nonetheless I think it is an important continuation of the Zip product line."

So many PC users swear by their Zip drives that it's clear the new drives will have instant fans, he says. "There are a fair number of loyal Zip customers, and they will be quite happy that Iomega will be offering a higher capacity, higher performance product."

Iomega says it has shipped more than 48 million drives and 300 million disks since it launched the first Zip drive in March 1995. It has no plans to discontinue its 100MB and 250MB drives, which Dammon says continue to sell well.

Software Matters

Another Iomega advantage is its software, analyst Schlichting says. Traditionally the company's backup programs have been quite good, he says.

"Software is very important, for many reasons," he says. "You want it to be very easy to use. File backup is perceived by most people as a necessary evil--not something people want to spend money on."

Iomega has updated all of its software for the new drive, Dammon says. The Automatic Backup application, formerly known as QuikSync, now offers enhancements such as the capability to automatically back up changes, save multiple revisions, and drag and drop to recover files. Iomega also improved its Sync and Active Disk applications, he says.