Basic troubleshooting
Windows 95 / Windows 98 troubleshooting
Windows NT troubleshooting
Windows 2000 troubleshooting
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Basic troubleshooting

When attempting to read from a Zip diskette I receive a series of continuous clicking from the Zip drive.

The Iomega Zip 100 and 250 should only make a clicking noise as a diskette is inserted and ejected. If you are attempting to read or write to a diskette and you hear a continuous clicking from the Zip drive and nothing appears to be functioning, it could be a possibility that your Drive and/or your diskette is bad.

If you only receive the clicking with one diskette, we recommend to no longer use this diskette as it will more than likely fail soon. However, if you get this clicking with all your diskettes, it is recommended you contact the manufacturer of your computer if the Zip drive was included with your computer, or contact Iomega if you have purchased the Zip drive from a local retail store.

CD-ROM Changing letter.

After installing the Zip drive, your CD-ROM will be mapped as the last drive letter. For example, if your CD-ROM drive letter was D: after the installation, your CD-ROM drive letter would become E:, this is a natural occurrence, your CD-ROM will always be the last drive letter.

Is it possible to assign the Iomega Zip drive to drive B?

Because the Iomega Zip drive is a fixed disk and generally the computer BIOS will not support any fixed disk on A or B, you cannot assign the Iomega Zip drive to any other letter than D or higher.

I am unable to eject my Zip disk.

Examine the drive physically, ensuring no items are stuck or preventing the diskette from ejecting.

If you are currently running Windows 95, 98 or NT, press an hold CTRL + ALT + DEL opening the end task window. Within this window, end task (close) out of all currently running applications except explorer and Systray. Once completed, attempt to eject the Zip diskette again.

If the diskette still does not eject, attempt to open My computer and right-click on the Zip disk drive icon and choose the option to eject. If this does eject your diskette, ensure the disk and try ejecting normally. If you are only able to eject the disk utilizing this method, it's a good possibility that the Zip drive may have physical issues and it is recommended to contact the manufacturer who provided the Zip drive or Iomega for drive replacement.

If after following the above steps you are unable to get the diskette to eject, turn off the computer and attempt to eject the diskette manually. Below we have illustrated the location of each of the eject mechanism on each of the Zip drives available.

The Parallel External Zip diskette is physically ejected from the back of the Zip drive by placing a straitened paper clip in the hole, triggering a switch which should eject the zip diskette. If you are only able to eject the Zip disk utilizing this method, we recommend contacting the manufacturerr who provided the Zip drive, or Iomega for drive replacement.

The ATAPI / IDE Internal Zip diskette is physically ejected generally from the front of the Zip drive. As illustrated in the above picture, you should have a small lever which a finger nail can be placed under and then pulling backwards pull the Zip diskette out. If you are only able to eject the Zip disk utilizing this method, we recommend contacting the manufacturerr who provided the Zip drive, or Iomega for drive replacement.

Iomega 250 drive backwards compatibility with 100 MB Zip disks.

The Iomega Zip 250 can also read the Iomega 100MB Zip disks.

Extra precaution

Do not use DOS's utility "DISKCOPY"; it may look as if it is working, but in reality the target disk will be unreadable when you are finished copying it, and you will have to format it to be able to read the disk again; used the shipped software to avoid this. If you use stacker to compress the disk, do not reboot the system when it asks you to; also, you will need to make sure that the disk is non removable or it may result in data loss; also, do not use dblspace, it will not work unless you are using a SCSI device.

Windows 95 / Windows 98 troubleshooting

Is it possible to assign the Iomega Zip drive to drive B?

Because the Iomega Zip drive is a fixed disk and generally the computer BIOS will not support any fixed disk on A or B, you cannot assign the Iomega Zip drive to any other letter than D or higher.

Windows NT troubleshooting

It is always highly recommended that you have the latest Windows NT service pack before attempting to trouble shoot any hardware issue.

Cannot access the Iomegaware.

For a user to access the Iomegaware the user must have Administrator rights.

Installing parallel Zip drive in Windows NT.

First, ensure that the drive is properly connected to the back of the computer. While following the below trouble installation steps, it is recommended that no other device be connected to the parallel port besides the Zip drive.

Download or have available the ZipTools for Windows NT located on our drivers page.

Open the SCSI adapters - By clicking Start / Settings / Control Panel and double clicking SCSI adapters.
Install drivers off of disk - By clicking the Drivers tab / click Have disk / point to the location of your ZipTools, Windows should then detect the Iomega Parallel / PPA3 device, click ok and reboot your computer.

Windows 2000 troubleshooting

After installing Iomega Zip drive the "Iomega Tools" does not recognize the Parallel Port Devices. To resolve this incompatibility with Windows 2000 and the Iomega Zip drive download the "Windows 2000 Update, "Iomega Tools do not recognize Parallel Port Devices" from http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads