What is a Jaz Drive?

Written by John Harris, Updated on October 11, 2023

Jaz Drive

Jaz drive is a removable hard disk storage that was sold by Iomega company, available from 1995 to 2002. It followed the success of the Zip drive which had a storage capacity ranging from 100MB to 750MB.

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Jaz drive is a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) device, with both internal and external drive models. Iomega produced various adapters, like the JAZ SCSI adapter for PCs and external adapters such as the Jaz Time Traveller interface and SCSI-Firewire adapter, to help connect the Jaz drive to the parallel port.

Jaz drive requires an SCSI controller because it uses an SCSI interface. Jaz drives have automatic playback and backing-up options. It operates at a speed similar to a typical hard drive but not greater. External Jaz drives require 100-240V and operate at 50-60Hz frequency. In 2002, Jaz Drive was discontinued, and the REV drive became its successor.

Jaz Drive Models

Some of the models of Jaz drives include:

  • Iomega JAZ 2GB Ultra SCSI External Drive (PC/Mac) - 31191
  • Iomega 2GB SCSI External JAZ Drive Disk Storage System V2000s 30271700
  • Iomega JAZ 2GB Internal Disk Drive VS2000si Jazz 50 Pin
  • Iomega JAZ Drive – V1000s

Primary Usage of Jaz Drive

Jaz drives, though not as widely adopted as Zip drives, found usage in various areas including:

  • Enterprise Management Systems
  • Industrial 3D CAD/CAM
  • Graphic design and publishing
  • Entertainment Authoring markets
  • Software development

Key Features of Jaz Drive

When Jaz Drive debuted it boosted the storage capacity to 1GB and later to 2GB with a transfer speed of 5.5Mbps. Jaz drives met the SCSI-2 specifications.

Decline of Jaz Drive

Some issues in Jaz Drives, similar to the Zip drive, led to their downfall. These included major click of death(Clicking sound when the drive is stuck and causes failure and potential data loss), overheating issues, read-write damage resulting in data corruption, and poor physical design allowing dust particles to enter through the side case, damaging the disk surface.

These problems impacted the overall reliability and usability of Jaz drives, ultimately leading to their decline in popularity and market value.

More info on Jaz Drive

As of today, the Jaz drive is a thing of the past that has lost its relevance due to more advancements in data storage devices like USB flash drives, Memory cards, and more in the digital data storage world.

We hope all the information in this article will be more informational about Jaz drives.

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