I'm enjoying Wally and Macster's exploration of the innards of a Zip drive. And I definitely won't knock it if they fail or win to fix the drive. Which is hard stuff (win I mean).

I presume that Iomega have some calibration tools that they use to "fix" the microscopic differences between components (especially those that have been broken and reassembled). The Zip is just a fast floppy drive that uses simple fluid dynamics to lift the head from the magnetic layer. With lots of patents to protect the design.

If the disk head mechanism is broken, I find it difficult to believe that it is reairable in the field (or anywhere). If it is just the disk inject mechanism, suck it and see.