Iomega Zip 250MB SCSI External Drive (PC/Mac)

Rating:
Summary: Choosing between the USB and SCSI versions
Review: The Zip 250 is perhaps the most rational choice for anyone looking to bridge the gap between Macintosh and Windows based machines. In both the SCSI and USB forms, it invites portability. It's the ideal solution for anyone who creates anything but video on one platform for use on the other. (For cross-platform video editing, a Jaz drive is more appropriate.)

It's also great if you're living on a budget. Though your initial purchase is more expensive than buying a Zip 100, you'll spend far less on disks. Since 250mb disks are essentially the same price as 100mb ones, your overall storage costs will be cheaper in the long term.

Perhaps more importantly, you won't have to abandon your existing Zip library to upgrade. The product's much vaunted backwards compatibility with Zip 100s is real and mostly trouble free. The only glitch with it is that if you're trying to save large (over 15mb) files to a Zip 100, it will take substantially-even painfully--longer than if you were using a Zip 100 drive. For many people, this won't be a consideration. But if you have large multimedia files in your 100mb disk library, you might consider transferring them over to 250mb disks. To put it simply, I definitely wouldn't recommend either version of this product if you plan to use only 100mb disks. The real question, though, is whether you should get the SCSI or the USB version. Out of the box, the SCSI external is twice as fast as the USB, but less portable. To use the SCSI version, you've got to have SCSI cards installed in every machine on which you're going to use the drive. Virtually no computers, PC or Mac, come with pre-installed SCSI cards, so you'll immediately have to spend money to bring your computer(s) up to speed. And you'll have to deal with the fact that most unknown computers won't have a SCSI card.

Meanwhile, the entirely more portable USB version, though slower by default, can be brought up to the same speed as the SCSI. With the addition of a FireWire adaptor, there's no difference between the two drives. All Macs since the G3, and an increasing number of PCs come with FireWire built-in. And if you happen to encounter a computer without FireWire, you can easily remove the adaptor and go back to the default USB connection-which isn't exactly "slow", anyway.

With either form, you're going to have to spend some more money to get both top speeds *and* portability. If you don't plan to travel outside computers you already know have SCSI capability, it's probably cheaper to go with a SCSI Zip. But if you want the fastest, largest-capacity Zip drive that you can use on the highest percentage of computers, buy a USB Zip 250, and add on a FireWire adaptor.

Rating:
Summary: Choosing between the USB and SCSI versions
Review: The Zip 250 is perhaps the most rational choice for anyone looking to bridge the gap between Macintosh and Windows based machines. In both the SCSI and USB forms, it invites portability. It's the ideal solution for anyone who creates anything but video on one platform for use on the other. (For cross-platform video editing, a Jaz drive is more appropriate.)

It's also great if you're living on a budget. Though your initial purchase is more expensive than buying a Zip 100, you'll spend far less on disks. Since 250mb disks are essentially the same price as 100mb ones, your overall storage costs will be cheaper in the long term.

Perhaps more importantly, you won't have to abandon your existing Zip library to upgrade. The product's much vaunted backwards compatibility with Zip 100s is real and mostly trouble free. The only glitch with it is that if you're trying to save large (over 15mb) files to a Zip 100, it will take substantially-even painfully--longer than if you were using a Zip 100 drive. For many people, this won't be a consideration. But if you have large multimedia files in your 100mb disk library, you might consider transferring them over to 250mb disks. To put it simply, I definitely wouldn't recommend either version of this product if you plan to use only 100mb disks. The real question, though, is whether you should get the SCSI or the USB version. Out of the box, the SCSI external is twice as fast as the USB, but less portable. To use the SCSI version, you've got to have SCSI cards installed in every machine on which you're going to use the drive. Virtually no computers, PC or Mac, come with pre-installed SCSI cards, so you'll immediately have to spend money to bring your computer(s) up to speed. And you'll have to deal with the fact that most unknown computers won't have a SCSI card.

Meanwhile, the entirely more portable USB version, though slower by default, can be brought up to the same speed as the SCSI. With the addition of a FireWire adaptor, there's no difference between the two drives. All Macs since the G3, and an increasing number of PCs come with FireWire built-in. And if you happen to encounter a computer without FireWire, you can easily remove the adaptor and go back to the default USB connection-which isn't exactly "slow", anyway.

With either form, you're going to have to spend some more money to get both top speeds *and* portability. If you don't plan to travel outside computers you already know have SCSI capability, it's probably cheaper to go with a SCSI Zip. But if you want the fastest, largest-capacity Zip drive that you can use on the highest percentage of computers, buy a USB Zip 250, and add on a FireWire adaptor.

Rating:
Summary: Great for a home with multiple computers
Review: We are family with 2 PC's and a laptop. I bought an 250 MB Iomega Zip drive a few weeks ago, and found that it is a great tool for file sharing between our new and not so new PC's. I was able to transfer several programs between our computers; creating extra hard drive space on the older model by moving some programs to the zip drive and the biggest plus is being able to use the zip drive as a 'slave' drive on one of the PC's. I also was able to transfer several mailing lists from one computer (that took me 8 HOURS to create and write!) without having to re-enter all the information. This product has saved me money in hard drive upgrades, as well as time that I would have had to spend typing over 400 mailing labels for our local VFW post. A great tool. Thanks! Ed Rhoden

Rating:
Summary: Great for a home with multiple computers
Review: We are family with 2 PC's and a laptop. I bought an 250 MB Iomega Zip drive a few weeks ago, and found that it is a great tool for file sharing between our new and not so new PC's. I was able to transfer several programs between our computers; creating extra hard drive space on the older model by moving some programs to the zip drive and the biggest plus is being able to use the zip drive as a 'slave' drive on one of the PC's. I also was able to transfer several mailing lists from one computer (that took me 8 HOURS to create and write!) without having to re-enter all the information. This product has saved me money in hard drive upgrades, as well as time that I would have had to spend typing over 400 mailing labels for our local VFW post. A great tool. Thanks! Ed Rhoden