Zip100 disk 'kiss of death' - Error 20??

[PhatAgnus]

Gang: I've had a Zip100 disk cough up a kiss of death recently, and I've made a few attempts to resurrect it with DiskSalv, Disk Mon Tools, etc. Both salvage programs slap me in the face with an "Error 20" code. Disk Mon Tools doesn't recognize there being a file system on the disk at all. I even tried a PC based program called 'tip', which reported back a ton of 'hard errors'. Does anyone know what this 'error 20' code is all about & how I can work around it to at least salvage data off this disk? I've gone so far as to swap drives, and even disk cases to remedy this problem-nothing has worked thus far. Any insight is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance, folks!!

[Darrin]

I lost all my personal Amiga files stored on a zip disk long ago.  Now I have 3 ZIP drives gathering dust because I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

I hope you get your data back...

[Jope]

If you run out of spare sectors on the disk, your data is lost forever, as far as I know.. Even though your sectors are still readable, if the drive detects that the spare pool is filled up, it refuses to do anything to the disk.

Talk about excellent design?

The place you got tip from (trouble in paradise) is a good source of info on Zip drives and the click of death syndrome, perhaps you can find some info on salvaging your data there?

If all else fails, then something like Norman Ibas can restore your data, but it's so expensive that the data needs to be very valuable for it to be worth paying for.

I wouldn't trust a Zip drive for anything.. I do my backups on DLT.

Hey PhatAgnus,

While I'm truly sorrowed by your loss (the death of an Amiga does sometimes feel like the death of a family member), I find myself a bit perplexed by the idea that they're even still making zip disks considering the ready availability of larger, less expensive, and more reliable media such as CD-RW.

I do hope you can find a way to get your data back, but it doesn't sound very hopeful at the moment.  Hopefully one of the other responses will have something that works.

I just wanted to pass along my condolences.

Wayne

[Linchpin]

Hmm, i know this dosent help you, but I was under the impression that ZIP drives were a really secure way (slow) to store data? I had 1 Zip100 Plus drive that worked endlessley for years.

Sorry to hear of your loss tho :-(

[Waccoon]

The official story [that I heard from Iomega] was that the heads were set and retracted too fast and it caused the heads to break.  Wouldn't that cause all kinds of sub-track noise that would scramble the data?  Recovery doesn't sound very likely.

I bought the original parallel interface Zip 100 for use at college.  Today, I can't even give it away, though it works perfectly.

[amiga1260]

I threw three zip disks in the bin, because they develop the click of death problems. They were Fiji disks. I don't have problems with Iomega disks. I have a Zip Plus. I don't use it anymore, because I graduated. I backup my data on CD-r's. After few years I make a backup of these CD-r's to keep my data safely.

I think a floppydisk is much reliable than a ZIP disk. :-D

[X-ray]

I have a SCSI Zip 100, external, that I swap between the Amiga and the PC from time to time. I got the drive in '96 with about 7 Zip Disks. They have been used on a lot of systems and only recently (December 04) did I find one with an error that couldn't be fixed. I couldn't fix it on PC or Amiga and it got chucked.

[PhatAgnus]

Well, gang. Thanks for your support (especially Wayne's condolences). Was hoping maybe there was a way to trick the miggy into thinking the disk was a viable one. I have to say though that this was the first disk to go south on me (an Iomega brand-Fuji's haven't failed me ever), and this is my 2nd Zip drive in 6 years. So, my luck's been pretty good with them up till now. CDRs are a pain cause you have to close them in order to read them, no? This Zip disk had about 43 Megs free . It did get a lot of miles though, cause it remained in the drive for about 1 1/2 years of power ups/reboots. I'll hold it aside for that 'magic day' when it resurrects itself. Till then Thnaks again, Guys!
Miggy On...  

[Trooper]

PhatAgnus wrote:
Well, gang. Thanks for your support (especially Wayne's condolences). Was hoping maybe there was a way to trick the miggy into thinking the disk was a viable one. I have to say though that this was the first disk to go south on me (an Iomega brand-Fuji's haven't failed me ever), and this is my 2nd Zip drive in 6 years. So, my luck's been pretty good with them up till now. CDRs are a pain cause you have to close them in order to read them, no? This Zip disk had about 43 Megs free . It did get a lot of miles though, cause it remained in the drive for about 1 1/2 years of power ups/reboots. I'll hold it aside for that 'magic day' when it resurrects itself. Till then Thnaks again, Guys!
Miggy On...  

No! generally you don`t have to close a CD session if all you are going to do is use it in/on a computer. The only time you really need to close a cd is when you plan to use the cd in hardware than doesn`t support open sessioned cd`s. Such as old audio cd players, Some dvd players (when playing a video-CD) etc, It is getting harder to find newer hardware that doesn`t support reading of opened sessioned cd`s these days. There`s always cd-rw`s.

Trooper