Still have not upgraded to terra size HDD's? Is that due to XP? Prices of drives tends to come down as the newest ones are much larger.

I've had 4 x 1 TB's internal drives for past 3 yrs. Most recent external is 2 TB (an apple voucher helped with this last one, since they didn't couldn't get the video card I ordered. I've been instead intending to get the ATI Radeon HD 5870 if they find enough stocks for it. It's been outta individual sale stock since its release. I can't upgrade to the newer nvidia ones due to them losing support for 32 bit or something like that. Or maybe it's the newer connectors.)

its due to simple math...don't have the funds and I'm using the ones I have...no good reason to buy any more drives as I think 2+TB of storage is rather enough, don't you?

woops, guess you don't as you have 6TB!

I just got a 250MB USB Zip drive.

250MB Zip250 External Slim Drive Review (USB) - CNET Reviews

Now I can use those 100MB Zip disk I still have.



UK Bob

I used to love my zip drives. Some Macs used to come with them in-built, the first one I used however was an external one I bought 2nd hand. They're nifty & convenient. Was easy for me to swap files from the computer next to scanner to any other or between the others not networked in that way, or swap files between friends. Also used to carry a few to university with me. Although they require some protection, definitely more hardy than the old floppy disks which were easily corrupted or dirtied or bent, etc. And much, much faster also. Sure, the odd one was a little slow or unreliable on odd occasions but in general were very good. Mine were well used. :D

LOTR

As for my (not so new) 250MB USB External Zip drive, I asked a guy at work if he still wanted it and he just handed it to me. Not only that, he has some zip disk he's going to throw out, I asked him to throw them in my direction.

At this stage, I think I am going to use zip drive to back up my emails and other important documents.

You know, despite the zip drive being old technology I still like the fact that its endurable and reliable.

There are draw backs, like still having no "off" switch and the rarity and expense of suitable disks, but I guess I'll just have to disconnect the USB cable and re-use the disks I have.



UK Bob

With the external SCSII zip drive I had, it had to be turned on when the Mac computer booted else the computer (Mac OS) would not see it (same as other SCSII devices.) That was both good & bad. Since I didn't always need to have it turned on. I'm not sure if it works the same way with Windows. If not, then arguably you could flip the zip drive powerboard power switch on & off as you needed to use it.

Zip Drives
 

LOTR

I used to have a couple of parallel port zip drives, the 100MB externals, and found that they eventually burned out because they were always on. I think I still have another old spare kicking around somewhere but I can't use it because I don't have a parallel printer port on my current PC.

However, now that I have an external USB zip drive, and to insure that it does not go the same way as the previous two, I will disconnect the USB cable whenever the drive is not in use.

You know, even though recordable CDs have all but made the zip technology obsolete but I still like using zip drives, I guess I'm just nostalgic.



UK Bob

Likewise, I still like & use the zip disks with a couple of the older computers. Anything from the scanner is via zip since my external cd drive died a few yrs back. And one of the mac G4's dvd drive also died last year.
I've never known a zip drive to burn out, but I guess it depends perhaps if it's internal or external (for cooling, etc.) My two ext. zip drives are over 10 yrs old now. But they don't get turned on very often now.
More actually. Also a couple 1 TB ext drives & a handful between 160, 200, 250(2) & 300 MB. Obviously video requires more for backup.
The 160 was always unreliable, was not until 15 mths after purchase I realised I could & should have taken it in for a replacement after speaking to support.

Well

I've still got my 160GB external Lacie, couldn't get a peep out of it when I turned it on a couple of weeks ago. This was the first external HD I bought when I started to use LW.

Since I hardly use P2P now I don't really need the extra storage space any more, I've found that my two internal 640GB HDs are more than sufficient to handle my current requirements.


UK Bob

The earlier model Lacie's had unreliable power packs/supplies. They've been improved in recent couple of years. That wasn't the problem with my 160 though, it was simply a lemon out of the factory. I was so disgusted I even posted about it on these forums several yrs back. (I may have deleted the post since though.) BTW Lacie changed the type of connectors a couple of times on their power supplies.

Edit: last year a friend had problems with an older lacie drive, as I hinted to them it turned out to be the power supply that was the issue. After the power supply was replaced, all was fine. This was a reknown issue with the older Lacie models (models from older than 15 mths to 2 yrs ago.)