LS 120 disks fail when I try to read them

[Jan Smeyers]

Hello,

I have a LS 120 floppy drive on my PC. First of all this was a big mistake
to buy, 'cause a normal zip drive is cheaper and gives me the opertunity to
exchange big files with many more people. Many PC owners have a zip, but
almost nobody bought a LS120 drive.
I use this drive especially for makin' copy's of my most important drawing
files wich I make for my clients. But I found out that the last 3 disks wich
I bought, all of them became onreadable. I mean the diskdrive keeps on
spinnin' (Tt won't stop. Only when I take out the disk I can make it stop.)
But the information on the disk is lost 'cause the drive can not read it.
I also tried to format the disks, but he is not able to detect anything on
the disk so this disk is not formattable.
Then I tried to return those disk to the shop, and have them replaced. The
answer is you can try it but we will have to send them by post to a foreign
country wich is not really cheap, and the manufacturer will blame you. But I
store about 10 of them disks in the same place on my bookschelf. No magnetic
stuff in reach, so?
I there anybody else havin' this problems, and what did they do 'bout it?
Is it true that this is one of the reasons why the LS 120 didn't break
trough. ('cause it is not stable in use).

Let me now if you have some expierience in using the LS120 (good or bad)

Thanks

Jan

[Greg Phillips]

When I had win95 I tried to install a ls120 and it was a disaster. I
had to return it and wait until win98 came out. Once I installed
win98 on my homebuilt pc I again purchased a ls-120 and it works
great. I just installed another ls-120 on the pc I built my kids and
it works great too, no problems. It is slow writing to disks but it
reads very quickly, at least off the ls120 disks. Does the bios on
your machine support a ls-120 drive?

[thecoat]

I got my LS 120 about 3 months ago, and I love it. It is true that most
people don't have these drives yet, and I'm not sure about thier future. I
have had no problems with the disks, maybe you got a bum drive. The two
things I like best about these drives is the speed, and the ability to
format two 1.44m disks at the same time. I would find a way to try the bad
disks in another drive.

Jan Smeyers <Jan.S...@village.uunet.be> wrote in article
<74k3s7$pjl$1...@xenon.inbe.net>...

> Hello,
>
> I have a LS 120 floppy drive on my PC. First of all this was a big
mistake
> to buy, 'cause a normal zip drive is cheaper and gives me the opertunity
to
> exchange big files with many more people. Many PC owners have a zip, but
> almost nobody bought a LS120 drive.
> I

[Ginther, Darin (BNR:RICH2:W211)]

I've just bought one (they are like $39 at Best Buy when you consider the
rebate) - my father
has one.. One critical thing:

UPGRADE your BIOS.. Otherwise you get all kinds of issues with Win95 - it may
see it
as a "fixed disk drive" - since it's an IDE device.. Most BIOS are now
supporting this type
of drive, when your system boots it should recognize it as an LS-120..

Try this and then see if you have problems.

Jan Smeyers wrote:

> Hello,

[Matt Bryda]

On Tue, 8 Dec 1998 21:05:05 +0100, "Jan Smeyers"
<Jan.S...@village.uunet.be> wrote:

>I have a LS 120 floppy drive on my PC. First of all this was a big mistake
>to buy, 'cause a normal zip drive is cheaper and gives me the opertunity to
>exchange big files with many more people. Many PC owners have a zip, but
>almost nobody bought a LS120 drive.

Wrong. Both the Zip and the media is more expensive, when you
consider that you get an extra 20MB with the LS120.

>I use this drive especially for makin' copy's of my most important drawing
>files wich I make for my clients. But I found out that the last 3 disks wich
>I bought, all of them became onreadable. I mean the diskdrive keeps on
>spinnin' (Tt won't stop. Only when I take out the disk I can make it stop.)
>But the information on the disk is lost 'cause the drive can not read it.
>I also tried to format the disks, but he is not able to detect anything on
>the disk so this disk is not formattable.

Zips have the Click of Death, where it destroys your data.
I've personally had about 6 drives suffer from this. And yet, Iomega
still insists that there is no problem....

>Then I tried to return those disk to the shop, and have them replaced. The
>answer is you can try it but we will have to send them by post to a foreign
>country wich is not really cheap, and the manufacturer will blame you. But I
>store about 10 of them disks in the same place on my bookschelf. No magnetic
>stuff in reach, so?

You can try www.superdisk.com. I'm sure that Imation (one of
the inventors of the SD) will be able to exchange them for you. I
think these things have a lifetime guarantee.

>I there anybody else havin' this problems, and what did they do 'bout it?

>Is it true that this is one of the reasons why the LS 120 didn't break
>trough. ('cause it is not stable in use).

Also, if you have Win95a, you need to install the drivers that
came with the drive. 95b+ have biult in support for it. Also make
sure the IDE ports are setup right.

>Let me now if you have some expierience in using the LS120 (good or bad)

All good. I ditched Zip for it and havn't looked back (or
regretted it) since!

-Matt
s
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[Anton Jones]

I have both a ZIP and LS-120.

I have NEVER had problems with my
LS-120 drive. My install was painless
because I had Win95 OSR2 and a current
AMI bios that supports booting from the LS-120.

I have converted all my ZIP data disks over to LS-120
because I don't trust ZIP drives any more after mine
started "clicking" (hasn't completely died).

Maybe you did get a bad drive but I can guess it was
by chance....the few people I know that own LS-120's
are very happy with them.

Make it easy on yourself:

1. Install Win95 OSR2.X or Win98 or WinNT
2. See if you can upgrade your BIOS to support
booting from the LS-120 (floptical) drive.

Good Luck!

- AJ
MCsomething or other
CNA (Certified Nut Admittedly)

Jan Smeyers wrote in message <74k3s7$pjl$1...@xenon.inbe.net>...
>Hello,

>
>I have a LS 120 floppy drive on my PC. First of all this was a big mistake
>to buy, 'cause a normal zip drive is cheaper and gives me the opertunity to
>exchange big files with many more people. Many PC owners have a zip, but
>almost nobody bought a LS120 drive.

>I use this drive especially for makin' copy's of my most important drawing
>files wich I make for my clients. But I found out that the last 3 disks
wich
>I bought, all of them became onreadable. I mean the diskdrive keeps on
>spinnin' (Tt won't stop. Only when I take out the disk I can make it stop.)
>But the information on the disk is lost 'cause the drive can not read it.
>I also tried to format the disks, but he is not able to detect anything on
>the disk so this disk is not formattable.

>Then I tried to return those disk to the shop, and have them replaced. The
>answer is you can try it but we will have to send them by post to a foreign
>country wich is not really cheap, and the manufacturer will blame you. But
I
>store about 10 of them disks in the same place on my bookschelf. No
magnetic
>stuff in reach, so?

>I there anybody else havin' this problems, and what did they do 'bout it?
>Is it true that this is one of the reasons why the LS 120 didn't break
>trough. ('cause it is not stable in use).
>

>Let me now if you have some expierience in using the LS120 (good or bad)
>

>Thanks
>
>Jan
>
>

[Jim McLaren]

Jan,

The only problem I've had with an LS120 drive was when I used the
quick format option in Win95. I wrote to the disk successfully, but
have never managed to do it since. Also I can't reformat the disk now.

Always use the full format, and I've had no further problems.

Jim McLaren
Fife, Scotland
email: jamesDOTmclaren@farmlineDOTcom
Replace dot with a dot to email me.

[Jim]

Try posting to alt.comp.hardware.superdisk
This newsgroup is dedicated to the LS-120 and you can get some good
info from them.

Thanks, Jim

>On Tue, 8 Dec 1998 21:05:05 +0100, "Jan Smeyers" <Jan.S...@village.uunet.be> wrote:

[scrinnger]

Jan Smeyers wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I have a LS 120 floppy drive on my PC. First of all this was a big mistake
> to buy, 'cause a normal zip drive is cheaper and gives me the opertunity to
> exchange big files with many more people. Many PC owners have a zip, but
> almost nobody bought a LS120 drive.
> I use this drive especially for makin' copy's of my most important drawing
> files wich I make for my clients. But I found out that the last 3 disks wich
> I bought, all of them became onreadable. I mean the diskdrive keeps on
> spinnin' (Tt won't stop. Only when I take out the disk I can make it stop.)
> But the information on the disk is lost 'cause the drive can not read it.
> I also tried to format the disks, but he is not able to detect anything on
> the disk so this disk is not formattable.
> Then I tried to return those disk to the shop, and have them replaced. The
> answer is you can try it but we will have to send them by post to a foreign
> country wich is not really cheap, and the manufacturer will blame you. But I
> store about 10 of them disks in the same place on my bookschelf. No magnetic
> stuff in reach, so?
> I there anybody else havin' this problems, and what did they do 'bout it?
> Is it true that this is one of the reasons why the LS 120 didn't break
> trough. ('cause it is not stable in use).
>
> Let me now if you have some expierience in using the LS120 (good or bad)
>
> Thanks
>
> Jan

I've had an LS-120 for about 3 months and I've already had one disk
fail, it does exactly what you describe, I bought the disk from a
computer fair so I haven't had the chance to return it yet. I wonder if
I will get a replacement. At 10UKP ($15)they are too expensive to dump.

[Bill Jones]

Computer Fairs are a rip off any way. As for teh disks you should find a 10
pack of them for $90 US. As for the zips they cant do standard floppy disks.

scrinnger wrote in message <368B9E7F...@work.net>...

[James McIllece]

It sounds to me like you bought some bad disks. I have three LS-120
drives in three machines and they all work really well -- but I only
use Maxell disks.

Generally speaking you can find these for sale online for around $8
apiece, if you buy them in ten packs.

I'm sorry you're having trouble with your drive! Good luck in getting
it all repaired.

James McIllece
Deve...@mailexcite.com

On Thu, 31 Dec 1998 15:55:43 +0000, scrinnger <scri...@work.net>
wrote:

[Richard Kawamura]

I and two of my friends have had the same thing happen with Zip disks. So I
don't think one is better than the other. The LS disk is hard formatted and
shouldn't have that problem unless it is defective.

Richard Kawamura
RK...@usa.net