Zip 750 Disks not working properly

[m8E]

I use an Iomega Zip 750 external drive with Iomega Zip 750 disks on Windows Xp Pro. The disks are not overly used, about 18 months old, and stored in a separate cupboard away from electrical influences, although the drive itself is in close proximity to a monitor and a scanner.

Within the last week 2 of my Zip 750 disks have slowly and gradually decided not to respond properly because when I insert them into the zip drive the disk continues to whir inside the drive without stopping, I have even left the disk in the drive to see if it would settle and stop only to return 15 minutes later to find no change whatsoever and the disk still whirring in the drive! Initially when this problem began nearly a week ago the disk merely took it's time to open a window however it has gradually developed to the point now where I put the disk into the drive and the disk simply takes no action other than to whir in the drive without stopping or responding. At this point my computer still seems to operate okay until I left or right click on the zip drive icon and then my computer system acts as though there has been a crash and just stops and no further action can be taken on my computer. No left or right clicking is possible at this point even though the mouse still moves around, so the only thing to do at this point is to press the eject button on the zip drive which ejects the disk, then things return to normal on my computer and I restart to be sure. This trouble does not happen with my other zip 750 disks, only these 2 disks react this way.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone, and is this a problem that I can fix?

p.s. I'm not sure if I begun this thread in the right place so if I didn't can someone tell me which part of the forum it should be in and I'll re-do it there, thanks.

[Astalavista]

google for click of death syndrome

it is a iomega problem

[m8E]

Thanks for the reply Astalavista, after your post I have done some searching on CLICK OF DEATH syndrome or COD and found that there are variations of the trouble which is bothering the iomega zip disks and drives.

The variation which I described above is not a strict COD because there was no 'clicking' involved and my drive is still in good working order. I also have an external Zip 250 drive too and some 250 disks that were okay up until two of the disks decided to go their own way again without the clicking noises occuring and again the drive is still in good working order.

Its possible that the disks have just stopped working, but two at the same time? They were no more than 18 months old at the most! This happened with both of my zip 750 disks and both of my zip 250 disks, and all four disks went awol on a 750 drive. However there is a distinction between the disks and that is I am getting results from using file recovery software on the 750 disks but no results whatsoever on the 250 disks.

Here's a suggestion, perhaps zip 250 and 750 disks/drives are easily badly effected by warm temperatures or hot weather?

I have been trying to find an answer to the zip disk/drive problem without much success but I did find an interesting piece of information on a CLICK OF DEATH variation on a zip 250 drive:

http://siber-sonic.com/mac/Zip250fix.html

it describes a repair with pictures on a 250 zip drive after abnormally loud clicks upon disk insertion. Interesting...

[rjz]

can you run chkdsk on them? Some softeware programs might get the data off.