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[ Go to March 1997 Table of Contents ]
WinLab Reviews
-- by James E. Powell
If you want to take your Iomega Zip drive on the road, a parallel port version works fine. However, SCSI Zip drive owners can now rejoice, too: The Iomega Zip card is a PC-Card-to-SCSI adapter that's simple to install under Windows 95. Weighing just under 5 ounces, a 29.5-inch cord con-nects the Type II PC Card to the 25-pin port on the back of your Zip drive. I plugged the card into an AST Ascentia J laptop, attached the cord, and powered up the notebook and Zip drive. Win95 recognized the card as an Adaptec APA-1460 SCSI adapter, and the Zip drive appeared in Explorer as another drive, just as on my desktop system. I didn't need to run the installation program, though you will if you're running Windows 3.x or DOS (a Card and Socket Services program is supplied). You may also wish to install the Tools software included with your Zip drive. You'll also smile because you won't have to lug around a heavy, bulky transformer just to power your Zip drive. The Zip unleashed battery pack is a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery pack that sits atop your Zip drive and uses a fold-down power connector that slips into the drive's power jack. A small flap on the battery pack attaches to the lip at the back of your Zip drive to stabilize the connection. The Zip unleashed takes 10 to 12 hours to recharge-just flip down the built-in prongs and insert them into a power source. Since the prongs rotate 270 degrees, you can easily plug the Zip unleashed into a power strip or wall outlet. A green light indicates the battery is receiving power, but there is no indicator to show when it's fully charged. Under normal operations (saving a file every 5 minutes, running Explorer, copying and deleting files and folders), I typically averaged 2 hours' worth of power. Iomega says you can get up to 3 hours with intermittent use. Disk-intensive activities, like defragging a Zip disk, will shorten that time considerably. The Zip unleashed is rated at 500 to 750 cycles. If you charge it once a day, it should last just over a year. At just 9 ounces and measuring 1 by 4.4 by 3.3 inches, the batteries are small enough to let you pack two or three.
Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc.
Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc.
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