Iomega 31310 Zip 250 MB USB-Powered Drive

The drive comes with detailed, easy-to-follow installation instructions, but you probably won't even need them. Just run the setup program and plug the drive into your USB port; your PC will automatically assign a drive letter to it and recognize it as a removable disk drive. There aren't any jumpers or switches to set; in fact, the drive has only one button, which ejects the disk. Once it's installed, you use it just like a floppy drive to save or copy files.

Physically, the drive sports a very thin, light plastic case, measuring 169 by 117 by 26 millimeters and weighing only 1.5 pounds. It draws all its power from the USB port, so there's no need for batteries or an external power supply. And, like any USB device, it's hot swappable: you can plug or unplug it without restarting your computer. It can sit flat on a table or stand upright with the included plastic stand.

Once we started playing with the USB-powered Zip 250, we immediately saw many situations in which it would come in handy. For example, say you wanted to do some work at home. You could easily copy the files to a Zip disk, take the drive home with you, and then just plug it into your PC and be ready to go. Since it's compatible with both PC and Macs, it's perfect for sharing files across operating systems. And of course, its compact shape makes it ideal for taking on the road.

The drive performed well in both our read and write testing; we didn't encounter any glitches, and it took just a little over 2 minutes to copy 100 MB of MP3 files to the drive. That's fast enough for most uses, and much faster than a Zip drive hooked up to a standard parallel or serial port, but not as fast as an internal IDE or SCSI Zip drive.

Iomega includes some valuable backup utilities with the Zip drive, as well as some other useful applications. Iomega Backup lets you create and schedule compressed backups of specific folders or entire drives. MusicMatch Jukebox is an excellent utility for ripping CDs and organizing your digital music files. And Adobe's ActiveShare offers a slick interface for manipulating photos and sharing them on the Web.

The USB-powered 250 MB Zip drive offers an inexpensive and simple way to add removable storage to your PC or Mac. Its slim, light design makes it absolutely invaluable for road warriors who needs to take their data with them. --Ken Feinstein

Pros:

• Slim and lightweight
• Very simple installation
• Works with PCs and Macs
• Gets all its power from the USB port

Cons:

• Not as fast as internal drives

Compared to backing up files on CD-R there's more instant gratification and less media handling to just copy files to the Zip drive, just as I would a hard drive. I develop web sites and want the security of having immediate copies of changed files on a removable medium and this fills the bill adequately. In my view it beats recording on multi-session CD-R's, waiting for the CD to finalize, and ... in all, can be a faster process actually.

Why the 250MB model? I wanted compatibility with the old 100MB media, and there are plenty of those out there. Otherwise I would have purchased the 750MB Zip for its USB 2.0 capability, but it can only read, not write, 100MB media. I primarily use 250MB media for my own purposes and I've noticed that it seems much faster on this drive than with the 100MB media. I don't know why yet.

Capacity? All of my web sites and important data folders are much less than 250 MB so that's not an issue for me. On a daily basis I backup only the active web sites, my email files, and spreadsheet data. For more voluminous data I use the nicely designed "Backup My PC" program from Stomp Software. This used to be the Seagate Backup Exec supplied with Windows 98 as "MS Backup". With compression the 250MB media can hold up to 400+ MB, nearing the capacity of a CDROM disc.

Performance? I can live with USB1.1 technology though I surely would have preferred 2.0 since my hardware (new Dell) supports it. Using a backup program like I often do, the writes to the Zip drive are kept to a minimum and I can backup/verify a 72MB web site in less than 2 minutes, far exceeding the promised maximum speed of .9Mbps of the USB 1.1 model. Initially the Zip drive ran very slowly and I was quite unhappy with that. Turns out that Windows XP has a setting in Device Manager under the Policies tab to "Optimize for performance". That was not being defaulted to. My performance increased 5 to 7-fold with this setting. Also, I was having intermittent media errors which disappeared when I unchecked "Enable write caching on the disk", again under "Policies".

In summary, I consider this USB Zip to be very convenient owing to its strong support from XP, freedom from confining power adapters, and hot plugability (on or off) to the USB port. I also like the Iomega Brand. Most important it offers me compatibility with most other computers I interface with and with acceptable capacity and speed. If you do buy this drive, consider favoring the 250MB media for yourself (performance, as well as capacity) and the 100MB for compatibility with others (if this applies to you).

Hope this information proves useful and that you find the 250MB Zip to be worth your $$$.


Excellent choice for portable, removable storage   March 10, 2001
31 out of 33 found this review helpful

The 250MB USB-Powered Zip drive is great for backing up personal data (obviously not entire hard drives) and, thanks to the easy portability, for transferring data between computers. This drive costs the same as the Zip 250 USB drive that draws power from an AC adapter instead of the USB bus, which is of course less convenient, but that other model has a couple of advantages: 1) it can be upgraded to a FireWire interface using a... adapter from Iomega, which Iomega says doubles the read spead over using the drive in USB mode; and 2) the AC-adapter-powered drive can be used with USB hubs operating in unpowered mode, while this USB-powered drive has to be used with a powered hub or a PC's built-in USB port. But I think that the convenience of the USB-powered model outweighs the disadvantages, especially if you travel a lot. The stand that allows the drive to be oriented vertically (see the photos) is a nice touch that saves desk space.


Excellent Drive   February 22, 2001
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

this USB powered Zip dirve is the best. saves space at home. not a lot of cords. easy to use and install. very slim which can put in your pocket, ready to use. you can have the zip drive stand on its side. #1 ZIP DRIVE!!


Reliable and easy to use, but getting dated   April 16, 2004
Brad4d (United States)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

--We've used a Zip 250 for well over 2-1/2 years now and are on our 33rd disc, and can't think of a single technical problem with the drive. After reading the horror stories about other electronics gear on Amazon, I can't believe this has been such a troublefree device (when reading about burnable CD's, words like "frisbees" are often used, and software is often cursed, but I don't think we've ever lost a photo or a file with ours). We haven't dropped ours or sat on it, like some reviewers have with theirs, but we have covered over 20,000 bumpy miles in an RV and live in a dusty climate, and it's been as eay to set up, as easy to use, and as reliable as an anvil. We bought ours because we heard editing photos was easier than with a CD, and have not been disappointed.
--Having said that, we may be switching over to a CD burner. For one thing, I'm not sure how long the format will last and I don't want to be stuck with a bin full of zip discs if our machine ever breaks. The discs are more expensive and more bulky than CD's, and it's tough to share files with a friend unless they have a zip, too. We won't be getting rid of our zip but will probably relegate it to editing photos.
--I rate this product highly because of its simplicity and reliability, but be aware it is getting dated (it's hard to stay one step ahead of storage formats). It makes a very decent backup system for files and some photos, but if you have tons of photos, you may want a CD or DVD. Hope this helps.


USB vs. Parallel   March 13, 2001
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

I am a computer technician and was BLOWN AWAY !!! at the blazing speed of the USB version vs. the parallel port. It is a definite if you need to backup or transport files. Buy it you will not be disappointed.