The Zip drive
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The Zip drive was long time expected to be the successor of the
floppy. It works the same way but its removeable
disks are a lot better protected from dust, and it stores much more data
(Zip: 100 MB/disk, Zip+: 250 MB/disk) much faster.
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The Zip drive is a trademark of Iomega, and that's what broke its neck:
Iomega took everyone to court who wanted to improve their drive or to
sell the disks cheaper, causing customers to switch to different and,
more important, non-proprietary, solutions for data storage.
Outside the US the Zip never became a standard computer component.
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Iomega Zip 100® drive
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Zip drives can be internal or external. The external ones do not
neccessarily need a SCSI controller, they
can also be connected via the printer port. Operating systems other than
Windows may have problems with that solution, though.
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