Yes, they are very similar and made by the same manufacturer, Iomega. They are, however not plastic like the Zip disks which are based off of floppy technology I believe.

I was really impressed with their reflectivity.

UofI? UC campus? Now I'm wondering where my Mg came from! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Some lab scraps? *grins*

I'm pretty sure Jaz were pure mag and not optical. Here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaz_drive

Okay.. Not sure which obsolete, haven't used in five years Iomega product I was thinking of. My bad.

hehe... I was thinking the same thing when I dug these up. I got a stack of 12 zip 100's, 11 Zaz 1GB, 2 Jaz 2GB, and 2 250MB Zips. All doing absolutely nothing. I intended to get rid of them on eBay, but the cost of shipping is far more than the item price. Maybe should strip them down and offer them up here as signals for the same cost, but shipping for a stamp! Either way, I'm done using them.

Just tore open a 250 Zip and interestingly enough it appears to look much like the Jaz platter! I guess it makes sense that they would reuse the size and just change the density.

Gentlemen,

Please look closely at the reflection generated by the StarFlash. This is exactly what I have been complaining about. The computer disk is similar to a glass mirror. The StarFlash's reflection is scattered and not nearly as good as a glass mirror. Also the aiming fire ball is too bright and makes it hard to see the target beyond for proper aiming. The computer disk is clearly superior to the StarFlash. A glass 2"x3" signal mirror is even better!

Let me tell you, Craig, you're SPOT-ON with the brightness of the aiming. It nearly blinded me. I barely looked, but in that split second, it was like looking at a concentrated sun. I tried at various distances from the mirror, but it was too painful. I just did the old focus on hand and brought that to my target.

And the disk is as close to flat as anything you'll find. Those have crazy tight tolerances and although I'm sure the surface is probably a bit ragged under an electron microsope, it feels and looks like polished glass... it's silky smooth and really hard to scratch. Even if you do scratch it, you'd have to do some pretty bad damage to ruin it as a signal reflector.

Wow, another correction. I just pulled apart a JAZ drive and they are about 9.4cm in diameter. The ones I was using were either pulled from a ZIP 250 drive or from an old 2.5 in. laptop drive. Sorry I goofed up. Hard drive platters in general should prove a decent mirror. I have some old 340MB Drives laying about collecting dust.... <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />