I know from firsthand nearly extensive (unfortunately) experience that Iomega Zip 100 drives tend to eventually succumb to the dreaded "Click of Death." If you're lucky, if you can call it "lucky," only a Zip disk will be affected. But, sometimes the drive itself succumbs and becomes unable to read Zip disks and might possibly damage good Zip disks to boot.
Question is, has anyone ever found a way to repair a drive that has succumbed to this? Searching online, I have not found anything. I did find instructions for replacing the disk reader, which is helpful from a disassembly point of view, but given that replacement drive readers aren't exactly available unless taken from a donor drive, that's not a practical repair solution in most cases. (Plus, since the drive reader is the part seemingly most likely to be defective, there isn't an abundance of donor drives either.)
I did find a repair guide for the Zip 250, but whether that is applicable as well to the Zip 100, I don't know. I might have to dig out one of my deceased Zip 100 drives and take it apart to see. In the meantime, I'm curious as to whether anyone else has found a fix for the click of death?
I'll post the links I found in case they might be beneficial to anyone:
Iomega Z100S2 Disk Reader Replacement
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Iomega+Z100S2+Disk+Reader+Replacement/4125
Zip 250 Drive Repair
https://www.siber-sonic.com/mac/Zip250fix.html
Also, another site had a short thread with discussion from people that had tried to repair their drives with varying success.
https://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=119158
One noted that changing the power adapter on an external unit was sometimes successful.
Question is, has anyone ever found a way to repair a drive that has succumbed to this? Searching online, I have not found anything. I did find instructions for replacing the disk reader, which is helpful from a disassembly point of view, but given that replacement drive readers aren't exactly available unless taken from a donor drive, that's not a practical repair solution in most cases. (Plus, since the drive reader is the part seemingly most likely to be defective, there isn't an abundance of donor drives either.)
I did find a repair guide for the Zip 250, but whether that is applicable as well to the Zip 100, I don't know. I might have to dig out one of my deceased Zip 100 drives and take it apart to see. In the meantime, I'm curious as to whether anyone else has found a fix for the click of death?
I'll post the links I found in case they might be beneficial to anyone:
Iomega Z100S2 Disk Reader Replacement
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Iomega+Z100S2+Disk+Reader+Replacement/4125
Zip 250 Drive Repair
https://www.siber-sonic.com/mac/Zip250fix.html
Also, another site had a short thread with discussion from people that had tried to repair their drives with varying success.
https://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=119158
One noted that changing the power adapter on an external unit was sometimes successful.