By Andrew Liszewski
The Iomega Zip drive was a life saver when I was in University, since I was constantly shuffling around a lot of multimedia files for various projects or assignments. But like a good number of Zip drive users, I was horrified the day I encountered the infamous “Click of death.” Iomega did eventually repair my drive, but not before the problem damaged some of my disks, and the company’s reputation.
But Iomega has (somehow) managed to stick around, and at CES they’re showing their REV drive, which is basically the latest version of the Zip drive technology. But instead of 100MB, the removable cartridges now hold 70GB and are apparently pretty durable since the read and write heads are housed in the drive itself, with the cartridges containing the data platter.
Unfortunately at $599.99 for the REV external drive and $69 for a single 70GB disk, I can’t see how this can compete with the falling prices of Blu-ray burners. (Given a dual layer Blu-ray DVD can hold about 50GB.)
[ Iomega’s Zip Drive is back with a vengeance VIA CrunchGear ]
We’ve had REV drives for backups at work for ages. One drive failed and the other keeps causing our backups to lock up though!
I can buy a 500GB SATA drive for just over $100, and I know that will be reliable. I just can’t see spending $70 for a 70GB drive that will cause me nothing but headaches. I have no idea how Iomega is still around.
this is just an updated version of the jaz drive
I used to use the zip drive all the time. However, I’d rather ~670 on something better like say, an external hardrive.
Regarding your ‘somehow’ Iomega sticking around:
They were busy establishing several storage formats including some professional HD Video formats. I’m guessing they just want to go back to the consumer market.
greetz
Def looks like the updated Jaz, pretty cool found some other good CES recaps herehttp://blog.gifts.com/giftrap/category/misc-categories/ces/
Considering that the REV drive was already introduced 4 years, it is funny that you have just discovered it. I’ve been using them for a long time, excellent backup device. Try to drop a external hard disk from 3 feet and see if you can still use it…