PC Repair and Maintenance: A Practical Guide (Charles River Media Networking/Security)

Zip and Jaz Removable Disk Drives

Zip and Jaz drives use proprietary removable disks in sizes running from 100MB to 2GB. These drives get a drive letter and are fast and easy to use. Windows Me and later versions don't need to have software installed in order to use them. Mac- formatted disks and PC-formatted disks are available. A Mac can usually use a PC disk, but a PC needs third-party software to be able to use a Mac disk. The disks are rather reliable, but of course are subject to bad sectors and magnetic or physical damage. The disadvantage to these drives is that the removable disks are much more expensive than CD-RWs and recordable DVDs, which can be had for under $1 apiece, and can be formatted to act as a regular magnetic disk.