Zip drive

Definition

A portable external storage device that could hold 100 MB to 750 MB of data, widely used in the 1990s and early 2000s before USB flash drives became standard. Zip disks were square and slightly larger than floppy disks.

Example Usage

Before cloud storage, I carried all my design files around on a Zip drive.

Origin

Named by Iomega, the company that developed it, likely referencing the speed of data transfer and the zippered protective case it came with.

Fun Fact

Zip drives were particularly popular among designers and photographers because their 100 MB capacity was enormous for its time, but they fell out of use rapidly once USB drives arrived.

Source: Definition backfill (hailey)

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