Iomega REV™ 35GB/90GB Drive Q&A (Questions & Answers)

1. What is an REV 35GB/90GB* drive? An Iomega REV drive is a revolutionary removable hard disk solution that efficiently and reliably backs up your system, provides low-cost portable storage, and performs immediate disaster recovery with Iomega’s Boot and Run™** technology. The drives come in both internal and external versions, and are used to read and write to the Iomega REV 35GB/90GB disks, which are pocket-sized, portable cartridges that hold 35GB of data (or up to 90GB of data with the included software compression).

2. What does Iomega mean by “a removable hard disk”? What makes the Iomega REV drive revolutionary is the way in which Iomega engineered the hard disk to be removable. Iomega, the world-leader in removable portable storage, developed this technology to ingeniously separate the 2.5” hard disk platter and spindle motor from the rest of the regular hard drive components. The disk and motor are housed in a rugged, removable hard plastic cartridge, leaving the disk heads and electronics – the most expensive components – in the drive section. This makes the drive and disk system very cost- effective, as many of the components do not need to be duplicated to add capacity to the system, and also makes the “disks” very durable.

3. Since this is not a “sealed” hard drive, is contamination an issue when moving the disks from place to place? Iomega devoted a lot of attention to this, and has made great technical progress in the area of contamination control, employing a number of patent-pending and trade-secret technologies to guard against failures. The spindle motor is in the cartridge and not the drive, specifically to eliminate the spindle hole, a potential source of contamination. With no spindle hole, the cartridge is sealed at all times while it is out of the drive. Upon insertion, the disk door is sealed to a mating door in the drive. This gasket sealing ensures minimal introduction of foreign matter. During operation, air flow is specially channeled around the media heads to flush away any potential contamination. Algorithms in the drive firmware also monitor the system and if necessary apply a special head cleaning mechanism. Finally, the Iomega REV drive uses advanced ECC error correction when writing data to the disk, which compensates for localized media issues.

4. What PC software is included with the Iomega REV drive? The Iomega REV drive includes a full PC software suite, including: • Iomega REV System Software allows your Iomega REV drive to interact with the via the Iomega REV UDF , and provides drag-and-drop file access, access and write protection, and formatting of the disks • Iomega Automatic Backup Pro software for hassle-free of your important data – including AES-based encryption and 2.6:1 software compression. • Iomega Boot and Run™ ** software for immediate disaster recovery utilizing Iomega Boot and Run technology • Norton Ghost™ Software for full image backup of your entire system and disaster recovery

5. What different drive interface types are available? In Q2 2004, the Iomega REV drive is available in the internal ATAPI and external USB 2.0 interfaces. In Q3 2004, the SCSI interface, both internal and external, and the external bus-powered FireWire 400 (1394a) interface are available. In Q4 2004, an internal SATA interface is introduced.

2 6. What computer operating systems are supported? The Iomega REV drive supports Windows XP Home & Pro Server 2003 (Standard Edition), 2000 Professional Server & Advanced Server (SP 3 & 4). The external FireWire 400 (1394a) bus-powered drive also supports Mac OSX operating systems. support is planned for the second half of 2004 timeframe.

7. Do I have to do something special to use the Iomega REV drive with my computer? Once you have installed the Iomega REV System Software, the Iomega REV drive appears as a standard drive letter to both the user and the operating system.

8. Is the Iomega REV drive bootable? The Iomega REV drive is bootable on supported PC platforms, as long as the PC’s BIOS supports booting from that interface type.

9. Is the Iomega REV drive compatible with 3rd-party backup software? Since the Iomega REV drive appears as a standard drive letter to the operating system, it should function seamlessly with any backup software that can use a drive letter as a destination drive. Thus, any 3rd-party backup software solution that can save to an optical drive or should work with the Iomega REV drive. In addition, Iomega works diligently with its software partners to ensure that the Iomega REV device appears on the certified device list of all major backup software packages.

10. How fast is the Iomega REV drive’s transfer rate and access time? The maximum native transfer rate of the Iomega REV drive is 25 MBytes/second. Actual speed may be limited by the bus type – for instance, transfer rates of many USB 2.0 host controller chips do not exceed 15 MBytes/second, and the maximum USB 1.1 transfer rate is 1.5 MBytes/second. Average seek time is 13 milliseconds.

11. What is Iomega Boot and Run™** technology? Iomega Boot and Run technology allows the Iomega REV drive to be used on PCs as your primary system drive (C:\ drive). The Iomega REV drive reports to the operating system as an optical drive (like a CD-ROM), which most PCs recognize as a bootable device. During booting from the Iomega REV drive, Iomega Boot and Run technology tells your BIOS that it is now the primary system drive. Thus, you can make an image of your own C:\ drive on to an Iomega REV disk, and then “boot and run” your system from your Iomega REV drive directly, which provides full access to all your applications, peripherals and network. This capability is useful if your primary hard drive is ever corrupted by a virus, experiences a failure, or is removed from your computer altogether.

12. Why is the Boot and Run feature only available on the SCSI and the SATA REV™ Drives ? Iomega ‘Boot and Run’ enables users to boot directly from the REV™ disk. Due to the alternating standards on USB and ATAPI connections – booting external devices is dependent on which system BIOS is present on the host machine.

Due to the very nature of SCSI and SATA, REV™ drives with these connections will be bootable and therefore will include ‘Boot and Run’.

13. What file system does the Iomega REV drive use? For PCs and Linux-based systems, the Iomega REV System Software drive uses the Universal Disc Format (UDF) file system, which is used by CD-RW, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM drives. Iomega REV System Software is based on the UDF 1.02 standard. For Mac OSX support, the Iomega REV drive uses the native HFS+ file system. In the future, Iomega plans to use a native OSX UDF file system from Apple as it becomes available.

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14. Why does the Iomega REV drive use the UDF file system for PCs? The UDF file system is the file system of choice as it overcomes many of the limitations of other popular file systems. The FAT32 file system has a 30GB format limit and a 4GB file size limitation. The NTFS file system does not support removable media. UDF also allows Iomega REV disks to use advanced ECC error correction on its media.

15. Why are we using the UDF 1.02 version for the PC and not a more recent version? All the PC operating systems that Iomega REV drives support have native UDF 1.02 readers, which allow the contents of an Iomega REV drive to be read even if REV System Software is not installed. Later versions of UDF employ feature enhancements which do not provide any significant benefit to Iomega REV drives. For more information on UDF, consult http://www.osta.org/specs/.

16. What is the size of an Iomega REV disk? The approximate physical size of an Iomega REV disk is 10mm in height, 92mm in width, and 74mm in length, easily fitting in a shirt pocket. The approximate mass of an Iomega REV disk is 75 grams.

17. What does “35GB/90GB” mean? The two capacities, 35GB and 90GB, refer to the native and compressed capacity of the disk respectively. Compressed capacity is achieved using the 2.6:1 software data compression (on the “high” compression setting) included in the bundled Iomega Automatic Backup Pro software. The actual compressed capacity will vary since compression is data and software dependent. For all stated capacities, 1GB equals 1,000,000,000 bytes.

18. Why does the disk say 35GB on it, and yet the capacity appears smaller when I use it? Like other removable media such as DVDs and tapes, Iomega REV disks use 1GB (gigabyte) = 1,000,000,000 bytes. However, when a gigabyte is measured in a binary counting system rather than a decimal system, a gigabyte is 1,073,741,824 bytes. Some computer operating systems may use this binary measurement of a GB when determining the size of the disk to display to the user. Therefore a newly formatted Iomega REV disk may report 32.5 GB free space available through the computer’s operating system, using this alternate definition of a GB. However, the user is still receiving 35,000,000,000 bytes of available space on the disk.

19. Do I have to format an Iomega REV disk before I can use it? No, Iomega REV disks come pre-formatted. A disk can be reformatted periodically to refresh its performance, or to quickly erase all the data on the disk. On a PC, the format option is simply found by right-clicking on the drive letter, just like with any other similar storage device.

20. Can I label my Iomega REV disks? Yes, adhesive-backed labels are provided which fit on the front of the media.

21. How is REV™ different from the Iomega Peerless drive? The success of Peerless assisted Iomega with its decision to develop REV™ technology. Unlike REV™ cartridges - peerless cartridges contain a drive head mechanism which dramatically increases the cost of the media. REV™ media however doesn’t include the drive head – which enables Iomega to reach an acceptable price point while maintaining the ability to improve on capacity in line with hard drive technology. The Iomega REV™ drive also provides further options for high speed interfaces – such as SCSI, SATA and USB 2.0

Boot and Run** including Boot and Restore are both additional unique functions to the REV™ Drive

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22. How is REV™ different from the Iomega ?

There are many differences between JAZ and REV™ particularly the increased capacity and speed. Iomega REV™ cartridges contain much technological advancement in media handling and clean environment techniques. To reduce the opportunity for any contamination – the drive motor has been included into the media to remove the need for a spindle hole which historically has been a prime reason for contamination. In addition to this new clearer environment – REV™ disks have an air flow filtration system to again further reduce dust particles.

*Compressed capacity assuming 2.6:1 data compression using "high" compression setting in Iomega Automatic Backup Pro software. This capacity may vary since compression is data and software dependent. 1GB equals 1,000,000,000 bytes. Boot and Run**, Boot and Restore and Automatic Backup PRO are further unique functions to the REV™ Drive.

** SCSI and SATA versions only.