When was zip drive invented

It meant we could carry around half as many disks, but it still took a stack of disks to cart around any meaningful amount of data.

Data storage was a huge problem, and source of frustration, for computer users in when the Zip drive came out. Zip disks resembled 3. Unfortunately when a Zip disk developed problems, it could damage the drive itself as well.

Enter the Zip drive, developed by Iomega. Iomega was a maker of removable hard drives called Bernoulli drives. They were convenient because they were actual hard drives, with hard-drive like capacity and speed. When you ran out of space, you just bought a new cartridge. It was incredibly convenient, but expensive. Hence the name Zip. Some people assumed the Zip meant the drives compressed the data, but it had nothing to do with Zip compression. It was just a marketing name.

The disks were slightly larger than 3. They never reached the popularity or ubiquity of floppy drives, but if you were a serious computer user in the mid to late s, you probably had one. Connect with us. Sign up. Term of the Day. Best of Techopedia weekly. News and Special Offers occasional. Zip Disk. Techopedia Explains Zip Disk.

What Does Zip Disk Mean? A Zip disk was an advanced version of the floppy disk developed by Iomega. Although most CompactFlash units used flash memory, some actually relied on a hard disk.

The Iomega Zip Disk is released. Later versions increased the capacity of a single disk from MB to 2GB. Two groups, made up mainly of Japanese technology companies, had been developing competing, optical disc storage formats. In order to avoid a format war akin to the VHS versus Betamax clash of the s, IBM initiated a working group of technology experts that brokered the competition. After compromises from both sides, the DVD format was formalized. DVDs came in both read-only and read-write formats, and were widely adopted in the film industry for consumer releases of movies.

Its better audio and video quality, interactivity, and improved lifespan effectively rendered the VHS format obsolete. Its successor was the Blu-ray disc. This optical disc was used for data storage and in the backing up and transferring of files to various devices. It was less robust than some contemporary storage media, and could only be re-written roughly 1, times.

However, this factor seldom encumbered users who rarely overwrote data that often on one disc. At the time of their introduction, they were the smallest hard drives in the world. Like all hard drives, Microdrives were mechanical and contained small, spinning disk platters, and were more prone to physical damage from temperature fluctuations and physical shock than other storage media.

Hitachi purchased IBM's hard disk division in , which included the Microdrive. For several years, Microdrives had more data capacity than CompactFlash cards, but were soon overtaken by the these and by USB flash drives.

Many handheld, mobile devices contained embedded Microdrives for data storage. USB Flash drives are introduced.

Sometimes referred to as jump drives or memory sticks, these drives consisted of flash memory encased in a small form factor container with a USB interface.

They could be used for data storage and in the backing up and transferring of files between various devices. They were faster and had greater data capacity than earlier storage media.

Also, they could not be scratched like optical discs and were resilient to magnetic erasure, unlike floppy disks. Drives for floppy disks and optical discs faded in popularity for desktop PCs and laptops in favor of USB ports after flash drives were introduced.

Developed by a technology industry consortium, the Blu-ray optical disc is released. It was intended to be the successor to the DVD, and was designed to store high definition video at p, while older DVDs were only capable of p resolution. The disc was named for the relatively short wavelength blue laser that reads the data on the disc, which was capable of reading data stored at a higher density compared to the red laser used for reading DVDs. A brief storage format battle ensued between Blu-ray and HD DVD, a format that was being supported in an effort spearheaded by Toshiba.

Blu-ray ultimately prevailed. Amazon Web Services is launched. EC2 allowed users to rent virtual time on the cloud to scale server capacity quickly and efficiently while only paying for what was used. Use of the cloud eliminates the need for a company to maintain a complex computing infrastructure on their own.

Additionally, it saved space and hassle in the form of less onsite server room square footage. S3 was a cloud-based file hosting service that charged users monthly for the amount of data stored and for the bandwidth of transferring data. Similar services, like Google Drive, followed suit and created their own proprietary services.

Dropbox is founded by Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston. Dropbox was designed as a cloud-based service used for convenient storage and access to files. The service also included sharing functionalities which allowed access to folders by multiple users. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K used five 3. As such, the Deskstar had a greater storage capacity by a factor of , and was thousands of times smaller.

Vendors announce cloud-based network-attached storage solutions for online backup. They were designed for small and medium sized businesses in addition to general consumers.

With these services, servers could automatically back up data to remote servers. They were designed for data protection, and along with backup capability it also provided a data recovery solution. Timeline of Computer History. By Year By Category Search. Its deep indigo color stood out in a world of beige PCs and Macs.

Small and light, the drive measured about 7. You inserted the power plug at a right angle. It followed a deep channel out to the back of the unit to prevent accidental unplugging when the drive was reading or writing data.

You could see the label of an inserted disk without ejecting it thanks to a window on top of the drive. Iomega later introduced an internal version of the ZIP drive that fit in a standard 5.

Measuring 4 x 4 x 0. They had a hard, rugged shell with a spring-loaded metal shutter. Like the 3. But unlike the floppy, this disk spun at a very high 2, RPM, which allowed the much faster data transfer rates.

Over its lifespan, the Zip brand had three disk sizes. This drive utilized MB disks but remained backward-compatible with the and MB disks. This captured attention in the press, but it arrived too late to make much of a difference in the market.

In , Iomega introduced Clik! It utilized very small approximately 2 x 2 x 0. Each disk held 40 MB of data. The format was intended to be used with small personal electronic devices, such as digital cameras and portable music players.

Iomega tried several times to build on the Zip technology and brand, and diversify its product line. One of its most notable items remains the HipZip But its lackluster interface software and heavy competition from hard-drive-based players rendered it unsuccessful. FotoShow —a glorified MB Zip drive with a composite TV output that served up still image slideshows from Zip disks—was another interesting attempt. It was intended for business presentations and people who wanted to show their family photos on a TV.

While it was a clever idea, its clunky, slow software held it back. Not long after launch, Zip disks found a killer application with graphic designers who commonly used Macs. The disks became the de facto standard for transferring high-resolution artwork between machines or to printshops. After most of the world had forgotten about Zip disks, graphic designers still commonly used them. By the end of the decade, you could get one for just a few cents.