whats the reflecty thingy on a zip disk for?

[Spikesoldier]

 

[brxndxn]

so that cars can see them at night and avoid catastrophic side-impacts

 

[Pepsi90919]

yes. catastrophic side impacts from zip disks.

 

[Supahfreak]

Yeah, what the hell is that thing for?!?!?!

FreAk

 

[spanky]

there is a reflecty thing there? never noticed it... lemme check...

 

[pulse8]

It's so the gerbil inside knows when to start running.

 

[geno]

I've always wondered too... try defacing the reflector and see if the thing still works, that'll at least let us know if it's anything really important

 

[spanky]

maybe it has something to do with how write protection? just a guess... since floppies have that tab u can manually flip up and down. i know zips can only be write protected (and unprotected) via software... maybe the zip drive uses it. who knows.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Originally posted by: genocide
I've always wondered too... try defacing the reflector and see if the thing still works, that'll at least let us know if it's anything really important

oh no,

1. zip disks are expensive
2. this zip disk is the only one that i have in possession (it doesnt belong to me, it belongs to my work)
3. it has important data on it

 

[geno]

Fine, wuss D j/k!!), put a piece of electrical/duct tape over it temprarily in that case

 

[Spikesoldier]

i thought of that about 2 minutes before your post. i found a post it note, tore off part of the sticky part, and stuck the sucker on there. it immidately ejected...

edits: BAH SPELLIGN! (intentional )

 

[Spikesoldier]

if zip 250 and 100 disks are the same size, maybe its a way for drives to tell the difference between the two? ive never had a zip250 disk, and cant compare them

pm if you want to donate one btw

 

[Tripleshot]

My Zip 250 and 100 disks are identical. You can run Zip 100's in my Zip 250 drives. On the left corner on the underside of the 250 is a yellow colored knock out and its a refective type material on the zip 100. perhaps these are distinctions on size and compatibility with Mac and/or PC format?

Call Iomega. They can tell you.

 

[flot]

I think I know what you're talking about, I owned a zip drive about 4 years ago.

As I recall, I did the experiment with covering it up, and my drive didn't like it. My best guess is that it was a combination of Iomega's licensing system and disk identificaiton. IE in case someone came out with a Zip-sized floppy, it wouldn't work - or if some company tried to manufacturer unauthorized (unlicensed) zip disks, they'd have to replicate the little reflector thing too. ?? dunno. Seemed to make sense though that if "Big media company X" wanted to make zip disks, iomega would say "ok, we'll license you to make 100,000 disks - and you'll have to buy 100,000 little reflector things from us for them to work."

Edit: A Little searching with google seems to confirm this. Apparently Iomega was sued in Europe for something related to this, some company was producing knock-off zip disks, and when iomega released its notebook zip drive, their knockoffs wouldn't work b/c of the way it read the reflector. (at least, that's what I can gather from the slightly choppy facts online) It sounds like Iomega holds a patent on the reflector "thing" in the disk.

 

[Talon]

"There is a small reflector window on the back side of each Zip cartridge, which is used by the Zip drive to identify a Zip disk so that it will not mistakenly engage the drive's read/write heads and potentially damage the drive. Since only Zip disks have this reflector, there is no danger of the drive engaging on a mistakenly-inserted floppy disk, for example. (Unfortunately it is possible for a user to insert a non-Zip disk into the Zip and damage the drive just by the act of inserting the non-Zip disk. This reflector is not a foolproof method, but it does help.) The Iomega Jaz drive uses a similar reflector mechanism, by the way."

link

 

[AsukaStrikes]

so iomega got greedy and prevented its media from becoming cheap, hence causing it to not be a widely accepted media standard and then cd-rs took the market, d00ming iomega to the penny stock it now is

 

[Spikesoldier]

Originally posted by: Talon
"There is a small reflector window on the back side of each Zip cartridge, which is used by the Zip drive to identify a Zip disk so that it will not mistakenly engage the drive's read/write heads and potentially damage the drive. Since only Zip disks have this reflector, there is no danger of the drive engaging on a mistakenly-inserted floppy disk, for example. (Unfortunately it is possible for a user to insert a non-Zip disk into the Zip and damage the drive just by the act of inserting the non-Zip disk. This reflector is not a foolproof method, but it does help.) The Iomega Jaz drive uses a similar reflector mechanism, by the way."

link

was that a straight quote right from iomega? possibly thats just a coverup for how they dont want knockoffs of their disks without a royalty...