They were always famous for doing non-standard things with otherwise standard
media. Their 5-1/4" bernoulli boxes were standard devices from one of their
competitors, yet they fiddled with the firmware so that you couldn't exchange
the media.
The old 8" bernoulli boxes had fragile media and while they did, in their
early releases, provide a utility for restoring an otherwise useless pack to
useability, that was removed from the device's capabilities after the first
release so you'd have to buy more media.
Their JAZ drives' ability to disable the spin-down was "greatly exagerated"
in
that the technicians at IOMEGA clearly stated it couldn't do that, though the
writeup that came with the drive and was in all the marketing literature
stated it could. They said there were no plans to fix that.
My experience with their ZIP drives has been that their drives last about as
long as the warranty. However, their warranty period starts the day the date
stamp goes on the drive, not when you buy it.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Passer, Michael W." <PasserM(a)umkc.edu>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 4:05 PM
Subject: RE: Drive inventory
That, and they _never_ significantly lower the price
of their media.
A Zip disk still costs $15.00 in quantity 1 in this era of 19 cent
CDRs; Jaz 1GB are still $100.00 per, and may heaven help you if you
need a Bernoulli 90MB cartridge! In 1991, they were about $90.00--
today, they're about $90.00.
It's just another IOMEGA boondoggle, though.
I avoid any contact with
IOMEGA anymore, as
not one of their products, and I have dozens, has
ever lived up to
their widely publicized
claims. They clearly lie about their device
characteristics, and
freely admit it if
pressed.