When I got my new
Acer Aspire 5515 Laptop I knew that one of the biggest problems facing me would be transferring data from the desktop to the laptop. After a rather annoying issue with
Microsoft Word and
Works not wanting to work properly I was faced with a rather precarious decision. Either buy the new version of Word, which I hated immensely, or delete the version on the laptop and install my older version from CD. I labored over hitting the 'remove program' button for about five minutes. If I removed it and the older version wouldn't load I was completely screwed. I do need to start listening to people when they give me advice. I was told that I couldn't have two versions of a program like
Word on the laptop at the same time; when I went to enter my passkey for my older version to install it I was told that it was incorrect. Now you see why I was so panic stricken?
So what does any of that have to do with the iOmega Zip Drive? I have one on my desktop and it has never given me any problems. When I saw this for $20.00 at
Staples on clearance I knew that it was a good investment. At that point in time I hadn't gotten the
laptop but I was shopping around for one. When I did get the laptop I wanted to transfer files from the desktop to the laptop but didn’t want to send them via email or use some program. It might be considered old school or archaic to still use Zip technology but it is what I feel comfortable with. The
iOmega Zip Disks don't scratch like CD's and the ones that I have can store 100 MB. I also like that I can see exactly how much space I have left on one of them by going to the Properties tab and seeing a pie graph of it. I was able to delete the new version of
Word [that was a 30 time use trial offer] and install the older version then import my files. If I didn't have the external
Zip unit I would, essentially, be screwed.
I didn't need to install anything to use this Zip storage unit. I plugged it into the USB port [an actual port, not an
adapter] and the Zip unit made a little bit of noise, the green light blinked then stayed solid and
Windows Vista took over the installation. You do get an installation disk with this but I never needed it. Once it is installed you can copy, transfer or move files around easily. It shows up on your
Control Panel so you can see exactly which drive letter has been assigned to it. In my case it's the F: drive. I like the "drag and drop" method of moving things but when I was transferring all my Word files I was worried that there wouldn't be enough room on the
Zip to hold it all. When I checked the properties I had 52.7 MB used and 43.0 MB free. That was a lot easier to understand than 55,306240 bytes and 45,125,632 bytes. Since it is USB powered you have one less thing to have to plug into a
power strip. I used to hate USB powered items because I only had a limited number of them to work with but then I finally broke down and ordered the adapter and have five ports to work with now.
I won't lie, this isn't the fastest thing on the market but it is what I feel safe using. I have never had any problems with the disks or the internal
Zip on the desktop. I backup my files in Work once a week; this includes all the HTML files. It's a total of 87 items / 3.29 MB. It takes about 15 second to copy the files. When I was transferring pictures, songs and videos from the desktop to the laptop it was a little longer wait for it to process but I didn't lose any files or find that anything was corrupt. When you are done with the
Zip unit just unplug it from the port. There is no power button for it and if you leave it plugged in you will hear an occasional whirling noise that can become extremely annoying. It gets its power from the USB cord and thankfully the cord detaches from the unit. I hate it when you can't remove the cord because if it gets sliced or damaged you are essentially screwed. It also makes it easier to pack into a laptop bag or case.
This is a basic, no-frills kind of item. There is an eject button, power status light and that's it. It’s a little bigger than a portable
CD player and only weighs a couple of ounces. It is ready to go out of the box and takes about a minute for the computer to install everything. I have used it for all types of files including MP3's, pictures, video,
Word and
Works documents, spreadsheets and more. It transfers everything perfectly and gives you a pop up prompt if there are files in the destination folder that are the same as on the disk. You have the option to replace / overwrite it or copy the file with a different name. It will automatically add a number after the name of the file so you can tell the difference between them.
So far I am extremely pleased with this external storage device. It is easy to use, has never given me an error when moving or copying files and doesn't take up a lot of space. It would be nice to be able to leave this plugged into the laptop all the time but since there is no power button it's just a waste of energy.
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^V^ © 2009 Freak369 ^V^
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