I've had an external Iomega Zip for as long as I've had my PC. I've had a burner for about six months.
The zip, being external, I can take and install on any PC. The disks are VERY expensive, and hardly anybody else has a Zip disk.
The CD is a pain in the neck, but terrific for backing up files. And everybody's got a CD player. The trick is getting the CD to be recognized in any old CD-ROM drive. Of course, a CD holds more than twice the Zip.
Kokaic, I also have both, I would say it depends on what you want to do, if you want to transfer data or small programs the zip is great, I have a external zip 100 mg and it is installed on most of my family's computers, that way when I want to share a file, I can drag and drop, take it to new computer and repeat, bingo, that easy, zip disc are spendy as Dreamboat said, but they are rewriteable and as far as I know, last forever, it is just like a mini- harddrive. If you want to copy music, large files or Games, then you will need the cd burner, they will hold much more data, (up to 160 songs in mp3 format), so you will have to base your decision on your need...or...get both...Good Luck...Rhett
A friend recently called to ask if I had a Zip drive or knew anyone who did. I didnt. He designs web pages and a customer sent him some information on a Zip disc. Dumb! Rather than put it on a $10 zip he could have used a 25c CD that anyone could read and gotten more information on it faster. I say 25c only if you are too lazy to fill out rebate forms. Some ancient CD-ROMs can have problems with reading RW, but I have yet to find one that wont read a CDR I recorded.
Some burners come with software that will allow you to make a bootable compressed back up of your C drive. There is third party software for all burners to do that some of it free. You can make music CDs from MP3s you download and make copies of your music CDs to put in your car player. All burners come with packet writing software that allows you to use your burner as an extra drive with RW media.
Unless you have a specific use for a Zip like your computer at work having one I think it has been made obsolete by the CD writers. CD writers have become much more reliable with the introduction of Burn-proof technology. You can use your computer normally while you record a CD. My old 4X HP was a real pain, but the newer models have finally become easy to use.
get a cdrw. have you ever seen a late model computer w/o a cd rom drive? plus the media is very cheap. even a year ago (when i bought my first rw) they were very cheap. but now with more compition, the prices have really come down. all the cds ive burned have run perfect on other cd rom drives. go w/ the cdrw
Thx guys for the valuable info. I agreed too that burner will be an ideal way of storing large data. My main purpose is to be able to copy large info from one PC to another, however, so far the only advantage for ZIP is it's an external drive which can carry around, haven't seen any burner with an external drive (I'm living in a 3rd world country) all burners are internal :<
(Just had to throw that little piece of wisdom in there. If it were possible, I'd send you one. I assume that it is not possible, but then, you know how to reach me.)
There are quite few external burners out there, USB, SCSI, Firewire, possibly even a parallel model or two and you should be able to find them online easily, try searching at http://www.pricewatch.com for some decent pring info and some sites that may have them. However I do have to post some good info about the zip drive. I have an internal 100 drive and do most of my downloading of large files at my parents or in-laws houses both of which have zip drives as well. Anything I want to download is easily trasferred. I still do major backups with the cdrw though. If you do get a zip drive, you have the choice of the 100 or 250. If you might be transferring data from other computers that already have zip drives then get the 100 unless you are sure the other drives are 250's as well. 100 disks will work in a 100 or 250 drive but but 250 disks can only be read in a 250.
One other thing, if the burner or zip drive (whichever you choose) is going to be highly portable ie. moved around from computer to computer a lot then the zip drive might be easier. No software needed to read or write to a zip disk but without software for a burner, you will only be able to read and not write until burning software is installed.
[Edited by frenat on 03-15-2001 at 10:31 PM]
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