Product Reviews

Rugged, durable, inexpensive and with the ability to store up to 100Mb of data at a reasonable speed, Zip cartridges have now replaced floppy disks as the industry-standard storage device.

However, as well as omitting a floppy drive, Apple also decided not to build a Zip drive into the iMac, promising instead a choice of removable storage devices to connect to the iMac's USB port. As such, users who require serious data storage for their iMacs and compatibility with other computers have been eagerly awaiting the USB variant of the Zip drive. And they won't be disappointed.

In keeping with the majority of iMac peripherals, Iomega has made the Zip USB drive in translucent plastic, this time in an attractive 'ice blue'. Getting the drive up and running couldn't be easier - simply install the driver software from the CD-ROM, slot in the power, plug the drive into a spare USB port, insert a cartridge and start storing files. Here lies the only serious disadvantage - the only thing that doesn't come in the box is a Zip disk, which you have to buy separately.

The documentation is clear and thorough, although you don't really need it because the drive is so easy to use. Bundled software includes a couple of extensions and a control panel along with the familiar Iomega Tools used for formatting disks and setting security options. Also installed are a few useful (and not so useful) utilities: CopyMachine is for duplicating disks; FileMatch is a simple backup utility which matches files on any two chosen disks, such as a Zip disk and your hard disk; and RecordIt is a sound recording and playback

Like most USB devices, the Zip USB is fully hot-swappable, which means you can connect to and disconnect from the iMac without shutting down, even when there's a cartridge in the drive.

In general use the drive feels very responsive, particularly when mounting and ejecting disks. In a series of speed tests involving copying various sizes of files to and from the external drive, we compared the Zip USB drive with the Imation SuperDisk and a Zip SCSI connected to a Power Mac G3 minitower. We found the USB connection slowed the Zip drive down to about half the speed of its SCSI cousin, but it was still significantly faster than the SuperDisk in most tests (see speed tests, right). Predictably, reading files back from the Zip USB drive to the iMac's hard disk was substantially faster than writing to it, while the reverse is true for the SCSI variant - in fact, the read speeds for both types of Zip drive are almost the same.

A number of other nice touches help give the Zip USB drive its appeal. The power adaptor is much smaller and lighter than in previous incarnations of the Zip drive, and will work with the majority of international power supplies. The USB cable is also translucent, and plugs straight into the back of the drive without needing a converter. However, only one port is provided, so a USB hub is required if the drive is to be used in conjunction with other USB devices.

Since USB is also supported by Windows 98, the same product will work with both iMacs and PCs straight out of the box. So even though the Zip USB drive is currently more expensive than its SCSI and parallel counterparts, we should see the price falling as Iomega starts shipping drives in volume to the PC market where USB represents a significant advantage over parallel connectivity. But even now, the Zip USB drive is an inexpensive system offering greater speed and compatibility and better utility software than its competitors.