Iomega JAZ Drive
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:09 am
I came across an interesting piece of hardware today - a JAZ drive. It's very similar to the old ZIP drives, with the exception that it needed another adaptor and was pretty much a portable hard drive. This is the 1GB model from 1995, which was huge in those days for PC (and Mac, I think) users.
This drive used an adapter compatible with the SCSI interface, and eventually became compatible with USB through an SCSI-to-USB connector, though it suffered speed loss. Through the SCSI interface, it could achieve transfer speeds of up to 8MB/s (1.5MB/s on USB) and had a total RPM of 5000RPM. It was originally formatted for use on the PC (meaning FAT16), but could be formatted for use with Macs (Why it wouldn't would be beyond me - it brags about it on the cover).
For those wondering, it's about the size of a 3 1/4 floppy, but much thicker. I haven't been able to test it, since I don't have an adapter, and everything at home is IDE and not SCSI. Anyone had any experience with these?
Obligatory pictures below.
If people have trouble viewing the pictures, they can be accessed here: https://picasaweb.google.com/1136786613 ... directlink
This drive used an adapter compatible with the SCSI interface, and eventually became compatible with USB through an SCSI-to-USB connector, though it suffered speed loss. Through the SCSI interface, it could achieve transfer speeds of up to 8MB/s (1.5MB/s on USB) and had a total RPM of 5000RPM. It was originally formatted for use on the PC (meaning FAT16), but could be formatted for use with Macs (Why it wouldn't would be beyond me - it brags about it on the cover).
For those wondering, it's about the size of a 3 1/4 floppy, but much thicker. I haven't been able to test it, since I don't have an adapter, and everything at home is IDE and not SCSI. Anyone had any experience with these?
Obligatory pictures below.
If people have trouble viewing the pictures, they can be accessed here: https://picasaweb.google.com/1136786613 ... directlink