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There are two options either ‘Short Format’ or ‘Long Format’ and you can change the file system used with either option by selecting either Mac or PC. This is done in the same way as formatting floppy disks: with the disk inserted in the drive open ‘My Computer’, right click over the Zip disk drive icon and select ‘Format’. Many disks come preformatted, but can still be reformatted by the user to suit their operating system.
Mac os zip drive 100 icon iomega mac os#
Zip disks use the same file systems as floppy disks, with the most common being FAT for use with Windows, HFS or HFS+ for use with Mac OS and ext2 for use with Linux. Below is a table setting out which interface is compatible with each drive:
![mac os zip drive 100 icon iomega mac os zip drive 100 icon iomega](https://i.unisquare.com/img/main/1/1/3/dd15fd79c5c4de8892fb9183u.jpeg)
Not every interface can be found on each type of Zip drive. Very early drives had an IDE interface (the forerunner to PATA), but these are not common. Drives are external and attached to a computer via an interface, either PATA, SCSI, USB or FireWire. Dimensions vary, but are around 170 x 110 x 25mm, although drives with a SCSI interface are larger, measuring 193 x 139 x 44mm. Zip drives are more compact than floppy drives. Their dimensions are 97 x 98 x 6mm compared to 3.5” floppy disk dimensions of 90 x 94 x 3mm. Zip disks are physically similar to floppy disks, except they are larger and not quite rectangular. Therefore sales declined and use is limited at the time of writing, though zip drives and disks are still available for purchase from online retailers. However, Zip disks never reached the same popularity as floppy disks and could not compete with other forms of removable storage, such as CDs which offer much larger capacities. There are three versions with capacities of 100, 250 and 750 MB, which is considerably more than a 3.5” floppy disk, and Zip disks have a quicker data transfer rate: 1 MB/s compared with a HD 3.5” floppy disk’s rate of 15.6 KB/s. The Zip disk was introduced by Iomega in 1994 as a medium capacity removable storage device to rival 3.5” floppy disks.
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Small businesses and personal users to backup files
Mac os zip drive 100 icon iomega mac os x#
Supports Windows OS, IBM OS/2, Mac OS 7.6 to 9.2, MAC OS X and some Linux OS. Zip drive needs to be of a matching or higher capacity than the Zip disk.