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Zip drives were introduced in 1994 but never replaced floppy disks. They were popular for storing large files, but DVDs, CDs, and flash drives have since replaced them. Zip drives can hold up to 750MB of data and are durable and reliable, but sales have declined due to competition from other storage devices. The drive slot is similar in size to a floppy disk, but inserting a diskette can cause damage. The drive contains a reflective dot to identify the correct medium.
A zip drive is a type of removable disk storage that can hold a moderate amount of information about your computer. While it was adopted by many computer users when it was introduced in 1994, it never replaced the 3.5-inch floppy disk. Rather, items such as rewritable digital versatile discs (DVDs), rewritable compact discs (CDs), and flash drives have gained popularity and have virtually replaced the floppy disk. These storage devices have proven to be affordable and capable of holding large amounts of data. For this reason, the zip drive has never been a popular device for data storage.
The first zip drive system, introduced by Iomega, was capable of holding only 100 megabytes of information. This made the drive, which cost just under $200 US Dollars (USD), an instant hit, as people used it to store files too large to fit on a floppy disk. It was later boosted to hold 250 megabytes and eventually 750 megabytes of information. At the same time, Iomega improved the drive’s ability to transfer data. The price for the 100 megabyte model steadily dropped as competition increased as other companies began offering their own versions.
From 1999 to 2003, however, zip drive sales began to slump. This was largely due to the falling costs of DVD±RW and CD-R. Also, Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drives with much larger capacities were introduced. However, some computer users still prefer zip drive because it is durable, reliable and able to transfer data quickly.
Although the zip drive is thicker than a 3.5 floppy disk, it is otherwise of a similar size. Therefore, the drive slot is large enough to fit a diskette inside. However, inserting a diskette into the drive can cause damage to the drive and the disk. For this reason, the drive contains a reflective dot to help the drive identify the disc as the correct medium. If the drive does not identify the media as the correct type, it will not activate the disk.
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