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The Beige Years

The Iomega Zip Drive and the Click of Death

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The Zip drive's legend says the click of death killed it, but Iomega's own filings point to something cheaper.

Kim Edwards staked Iomega on a blue box, won a standing ovation, and was gone before its peak year.

Subject
Iomega and the Zip drive, 1994 to 2000: the 100 MB disk, the sales boom, the 'click of death' failures and the lawsuits over them, the Jaz drive, and how recordable CDs and USB flash drives ended the format, 1980
Chapters
7
Sources
8
Credits
39
Corrections
0

Sources

8
  • Article5
  • Interview1
  • Encyclopedia1
  • Record1

Numbered in the order the description lists them. Read dates are when the page was consulted; the live page may have changed since.

  1. [1]
  2. [2]
  3. [3]
    Article Steve Gibson, Gibson Research Corporation, the Click of Death pages, 1998 onward:

    What IS the 'Click Of Death'?

    grc.com/tip/codfaq1.htm ↗
  4. [4]
  5. [5]
  6. [6]
    Record Computer History Museum, catalog records 102729842 (Zip 750) and 102729830 (Jaz), and the

    Revolution

    computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102729842 ↗
  7. [7]
  8. [8]

Image & music credits

39
  • License unknown25
  • CC BY-SA 4.05
  • CC BY-SA 3.04
  • CC BY-SA 2.03
  • CC BY 3.01
  • CC BY 2.01

39 photos, from the hosts linked below. Each file name links to the file's page, which carries the full license terms.

#UseFileAuthorLicense
1 Photo Iomega zip drive parallel.jpg Pedant01 CC BY 3.0
2 Photo 1987 Chevrolet Caprice New York Taxi Cab.jpg Joolack CC BY-SA 3.0
3 Photo New York Yellow cab Ford Crown Victoria 1020716.jpg Ermell CC BY-SA 4.0
4 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Zip 100 drive and Zip 100 disk, lomega, US, 1994.jpg Ходус Владимир, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) License unknown
5 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Iomega zip drive parallel.jpg Pedant01, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0) License unknown
6 Photo IBM DJNA-351520 Hard Disk A.jpg Christian Jansky CC BY-SA 3.0
7 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/20 MB Bernoulli disk cartridge.jpg Junglecat, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) License unknown
8 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Daniel Bernoulli 001.jpg Johann Jakob Haid after Johann Rudolf Huber, 18th century, Wikimedia Commons (public domain) License unknown
9 Photo Imation SD-USB-M3 SuperDisk Drive.jpg Kirbylover4000 CC BY-SA 4.0
10 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Iomega-jaz-drive hg.jpg Hannes Grobe, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0) License unknown
11 Photo Iomega Zip drive following removal (50937194633).png Ben Schumin from Montgomery Village, Maryland, USA CC BY-SA 2.0
12 Photo Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California (5142127584).jpg Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA CC BY-SA 2.0
13 Photo assets/supplied/iomega-10k-1998-edwards-resigned.png Iomega Corporation, Form 10-K filed March 26, 1999, SEC EDGAR (text rendered) License unknown
14 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/SteveG.jpg Wikijimmy, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0): Steve Gibson of grc.com License unknown
15 Photo Adaptec AHA-2940.png Trio3D CC BY-SA 3.0
16 Photo Iomega ZIP-100, parallel port printer pass-through-4491.jpg Raimond Spekking CC BY-SA 4.0
17 Photo Iomega ZIP-100, parallel port printer pass-through - read-and-write head-7762.jpg Raimond Spekking CC BY-SA 4.0
18 Photo assets/supplied/grc-codfaq1-1998-cause.png grc.com/codfaq1.htm, Internet Archive Wayback Machine capture of December 2, 1998 License unknown
19 Photo Iomega-100-MB-ZIP-disk.jpg KMJ CC BY-SA 3.0
20 Photo assets/supplied/rinaldi-notice-2001-p1.png Superior Court of Delaware, Rinaldi v. Iomega Corp., C.A. No. 98C-09-064-RRC, notice of March 23, 2001, page 1 License unknown
21 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Iomega ZIP-100, parallel port printer pass-through - read-and-write head-7764.jpg Wikimedia Commons License unknown
22 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Iomega ZIP-100, parallel port printer pass-through - read-and-write head-7772.jpg Wikimedia Commons License unknown
23 Photo assets/supplied/rinaldi-notice-2001-p3.png Superior Court of Delaware, Rinaldi v. Iomega Corp., C.A. No. 98C-09-064-RRC, notice of March 23, 2001, page 3 License unknown
24 Photo assets/supplied/rinaldi-notice-2001-p5.png Superior Court of Delaware, Rinaldi v. Iomega Corp., C.A. No. 98C-09-064-RRC, notice of March 23, 2001, page 5 License unknown
25 Photo ZIP 250 USB Drive.jpg Andrew Maiman CC BY 2.0
26 Photo Embraer Phenom 100 cockpit (45 (R) Squadron).jpg Cpl Adam Fletcher - RAF License unknown
27 Photo https://www.picclickimg.com/9q4AAOSwh1haP90M/Iomega-Bernoulli-Box-Dual-825-Cartridge-Disk-Drive.webp PicClick listing 'Iomega Bernoulli Box Dual 8.25" Cartridge Disk Drive System Alpha-10 (CDS-PC/20)' License unknown
28 Photo assets/supplied/designnews-1995-11-06-zip-a.png Design News (DN Staff), 'This drive's got ZIP', November 6, 1995, designnews.com (text set from the online article) License unknown
29 Photo assets/supplied/designnews-1995-11-06-zip-b.png Design News (DN Staff), 'This drive's got ZIP', November 6, 1995, designnews.com (text set from the online article) License unknown
30 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Zip 100 disk.jpg Wikimedia Commons, File:Zip 100 disk.jpg License unknown
31 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Cartucho Iomega Zip 100.jpg Wikimedia Commons, File:Cartucho Iomega Zip 100.jpg License unknown
32 Photo assets/supplied/condor-1998-zip-built-in-endcard.png Iomega 'Zip Built In' Condor commercial, 1998, frame at 27 s (YouTube M4aRd3DrAZ8) License unknown
33 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Iomega Zip 100 drive with a disk.jpg Yuri Litvinenko, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) License unknown
34 Photo https://www.grc.com/image/srGSD.gif Gibson Research Corporation, 'SpinRite 5.0 Screen Shots' page (grc.com) License unknown
35 Photo https://www.picclickimg.com/F1UAAOSwAehkwEmk/Iomega-Bernoulli-Drive-230-With-SCSI-Power-Cables.webp PicClick listing 'Iomega Bernoulli Drive 230 With SCSI' License unknown
36 Photo Qualcomm Stadium.jpg The original uploader was Intersofia at English Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 2.0
37 Photo Antonov An-124-100M Ruslan - Cargo Transporter - VGHS.jpg Md Shaifuzzaman Ayon CC BY-SA 4.0
38 Photo https://aerocorner.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Antonov-An-124-Ruslan-1536x1024.jpg aerocorner.com License unknown
39 Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Iomega Zip 100 drive with a disk.jpg Yuri Litvinenko, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) License unknown

Corrections

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