Iomega Tools are designed to help you use your Zip drive most effectively. Some of the Tools are similar to features available from the Macintosh Finder. Other specialized Tools are only available in Iomega Tools.
This section of the manual explains how to use Iomega Tools and describes each of the available Tools. Section 5, Using the Zip Drive and Disks, provides additional information on using Iomega Tools with your Zip disks.
In order to use Iomega Tools effectively with your Zip drive and disks, you need to install it using the Zip Install program. This places a copy of Iomega Tools in the Iomega Zip Tools folder on your startup disk and adds an alias for Iomega Tools to your Apple menu items.
After Iomega Tools is installed, you can launch it directly from the Apple menu, or you can open the Iomega Zip Tools folder on your startup disk and double click on the Iomega Tools icon. After Iomega Tools opens, you will see the Tools window and buttons as illustrated below.
 
All of the Iomega Tools utilities are available as buttons above the disk selection window. To use a tool, first select one or more Zip disks in the disk selection window, then click on the desired tool button. For detailed information on using any tool, click on the ? button. When you are finished using Iomega Tools, click on the Quit button or select Quit from the File menu at the top of the screen.
Iomega Tools includes buttons for setting Zip disk protection options, formatting Zip disks, and ejecting Zip disks from within Iomega Tools.
Section 4.3.1
Change Disk Protection
 
The Change Disk Protection button allows you to set disk protection options for a Zip disk. Whenever you set a disk protection option, you need to close any open files and quit all applications running from the Zip disk. If you want to set disk protection for a shared disk, you must first turn off sharing. Once the disk is protected, you can turn sharing back on.
The available options include:
Write Protect (with or without a password)
If a disk is write-protected, no one can write files to the disk until it is unprotected. Write protection provides a convenient way to prevent your valuable files from being changed accidently. If you assign a password, the password must be used to unprotect the disk.
Read/Write Protect (password required)
When you use this option, no one can read files from the disk or write files to the disk until it is unprotected using the password you assign. Read/write protection is a convenient way to protect sensitive information, but if you forget the password, the disk will have to be reformatted in order to be reused. In this case, all data on the disk will be lost.
Temporarily Unprotect
This option gives you temporary access to a protected Zip disk. If a password was assigned when the disk was protected, you must enter the password to use Temporarily Unprotect. When you use this option with a write-protected disk, the disk will be automatically write-protected again when it is ejected. CAUTION: If you temporarily unprotect a read/write-protected disk, you must restart your Mac to restore the read/write protection.
Remove Protection
This option can be used to completely remove either write protection or read/write protection. If a password was assigned when the disk was protected, it will be required when you select this option.
Change Password
This option can be used to change the password assigned to a protected disk. In order to change the password, you must first enter the current password for the disk. You will need to verify the new password by retyping it.
Section 4.3.2
Erase or Initialize Disk
 
Erase or Initialize Disk in Iomega Tools is similar to Erase Disk under the Finder, but it offers advantages not available under the Finder. Erase or Initialize Disk in Iomega Tools provides two format options: a quick Erase Disk and a longer Erase Disk with Surface Verify (useful for repairing a disk that has developed read/write errors). Erase or Initialize Disk also may allow you to switch to other applications while the disk is formatting.
NOTE: If you are using PCExchange and you want to change a PC-formatted disk to a Macintosh format, you must use Erase Disk in Iomega Tools. Due to an Apple bug, the Finder will not allow the format to be changed.
CAUTION: All of the information on a disk is lost when a disk is erased. Make sure that any information you may need from a disk has been copied before you erase the disk.
Erase Disk Option
Use this option to quickly erase all the files on a Zip disk. Using this option is just like using the Erase Disk command in the Finder. No surface verify is performed with Erase Disk. This option is very fast but should not be used on disks that are having problems or that may have bad sectors.
Erase Disk with Surface Verify
This option performs a complete surface verify on the disk as it is erased. The surface verify checks each sector and replaces bad sectors with spare sectors. It also restores the pool of spare sectors available for use during read/write operations. Erase Disk with Surface Verify may take up to 10 minutes to complete on a 100MB Zip disk. (A 25MB Zip disk will take about 2 minutes.)
This option should be used for all disks that have developed read/write errors. When you are repairing a disk, make sure you copy any information you need from the disk to another disk before erasing the disk.
Section 4.3.3
Eject Disk
 
The Eject Disk button automatically ejects Zip disks, and works the same as dragging the disk to the Trash icon in Finder. Because Eject Disk allows you to eject a Zip disk from within Iomega Tools, it is useful when you want to set disk protection options on more than one Zip disk or erase more than one disk in a single session.