[geeks] Zip disks

Joshua D Boyd jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu
Fri Mar 22 16:32:47 CST 2002


On Fri, Mar 22, 2002 at 05:13:43PM -0800, Kurt Huhn wrote:
> > Does anyone still use these?  I have 15 never used or lightly used (but all
> > were opened) zip disks that I don't really have much use for.  Anyway want
> > them for $2 a piece, shipping included?
> 
> Does anyone use Zip anymore?  I've got a Zip Plus that's just sitting
> doing nothing...

I do.  I'm not getting rid of all my disks, just slightly more than half.
Once upon a time I used zip disks for offline storage.  But, hard drives got
cheaper, so that wasn't as needed.  Then I sold my parallel port drive to get
the money to buy what turned out to be a defective IDE drive.

(Don't worry Bruce, I have a new scsi zip drive, and I've checked all the 
disks in it.)

I still think they are a good way to move files around.  I keep a pair of zip 
disks in my backpack for taking stuff to and from school, and presumably they
are still a good way to transfer files from artists (which was why I 
originally bought the drive was to get poster files from an artist for some
web design work).  I don't plan on getting rid of my zip drive anytime soon.
I don't think that CD-RW are an ideal replacement still.  I like cheap CD-Rs,
but I wish they had waited a little bit longer to become a hit so that ZIPs
could become a little bit more entrenched.  I really thought they were well
on the way to killing the floppy.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd



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