Subject: Iomega Zip drive and Tools Software

Gordon lent me the C & C Zip drive at the last meeting and asked me if
I could give my impressions of the CDROM tools software. Rather than
tying up the next meeting I thought I'd jot down my thoughts on using
the drive generally - and the Tools S/W in this forum.
All comments apply to running with W95 - unfortunately I have not
tried it with 3.1X.
	The basic drive installation was totally painless. Connected
the cables and power supply (including my printer on the pass through
connector). Didn't even use the connector screws Wolf :-)  Ran the
Guest95 software from the floppy disk and W95 installed it as F: drive
(I have 2 HDDs and a CDROM drive also). After that it was used as you
would any other drive.
	Interestingly, when the system was powered up the next day,
W95 called the Zip drive E:, and my CDROM F:! I have no idea why it
does that sort of thing which could be confusing to beginners - no
problem if you are only slightly savvy.

	I then installed the tools software from the CDROM (about 15Mb
or so if all the software is installed) again no hassles ( you can
install only the apps that you need to reduce HDD space needs).
1. Ran the multimedia Iomega Tour software from the CDROM - they said
one should install it on the HDD for best performance, but I declined
as it was >12Mb and I only wanted to watch it once. In the event it
ran fine from my X6 CDROM with RAM Cache on my 48Mb RAM system. Very
flashy multimedia intro, but then it became basically Iomega clickable
slide show type adverts and simple specifications. Just passable.
2. Two games demo software were included. I did not install or try
"The terminator- future shock" shoot-em-up - that was another 12 Mb or
so. But I did try PBA Bowling which turned out to be pretty good -
very lifelike pin dynamics etc. Beginner mode was almost too easy, and
Intermediate I found very difficult. Funnily, Pro mode was slightly
easier. Play method and skill needed was about on a par with M$oft
Golf :-) But the Demo was limited to an infinite number of half games.
3. Iomega Utilities....
	A. FIND IT - Removable disk cataloging and searching. Simple
Catalog and Find software. Well worth while when transferring lots of
Floppy disk stuff to Zip disks.
	B. APP MOVER - Moves applications from one directory and/or
disk to another. It also changes all linked files automatically - very
useful. This is a limited edition of part of Microhelp's
"uninstaller". It could be very handy if you decide to reorganise your
HDD. You can't move a complete sub-directory directly, but have to
select the main application within the sub-directory, then eventually
all the associated files and the sub-directory itself get moved to
your chosen destination. This is not too well covered in the Help
files. Unfortunately (like other uninstaller apps - in my experience)
it is very slow - typically 1-2 minutes to move an entire application.
Despite that I think it would be worthwhile.
	C. COPY MACHINE - Single or Two drive disk copy. Ejects ZIP
disks and cues for new disks etc. Caution! Do not do what I did and
place the Zip drive on top of a mini (or larger) tower case which in
my case on the second shelf of my desk above the keyboard. The disk
eject spring is quite strong and the first disk did a tripple forward
somersault with 2 half twists - gave me quite a shock (but the disk
survived)!
	D. ONE STEP BACKUP AND RESTORE - These are very simple to use
and all (or only some) files are easily selected. The help talks about
incremental backups but I didn't find any options about how to do
this. However all is revealed next time you try to do a backup onto
the same zip disk - the software automatically backs up only those
files changed since the last backup. However the software will not let
you use the same disk for a new set of files. It seems like a
reasonable compromise for inexperienced users - but is not very
versatile. Restore is equally simple to use - just select the file/s
you want and tell the software to go to it.
	There is quite a lot of emphasis on "1-step" which really
means backing up and restoring ALL the files on your HDD. In my
opinion it is increasingly unlikely that Zip drives will be used this
way. Even though each Zip disk holds the equivalent of 50 floppy
disks, you would still need 20 or so to back-up a relative small (by
today's standards) 2.1 Gb HDD. This would cost you $400 or so for
media alone for a single backup. But for your irreplaceable data
files, a complete bloated application or multimedia megafiles (photo
albums etc) the Zip drive is a great way to go.

Sorry this got a bit long...All the best....JohnS


John H.K.Saxon         Canberra, Australia's National Capital
jsaxon@pcug.org.au     http://www.pcug.org.au/~jsaxon/

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