This software isn't really a necessity for basic operation of your Zip or Jaz drive. But you should use it for formatting (when necessary), and it is needed for accessing the password-protection features and monitoring the Disk Life and Format Life status of your disks (see Iomega's Refman.exe file for more info on that). It also has a few other bells and whistles which you may or may not find useful.
Since IomegaWare (or Tools95) is not specific to Zip or Jaz drives, you won't necessarily need to
re-install it for your Jaz drive if you already have it installed for a Zip drive (and vice versa). However, there are some drives that have a minimum version requirement. An IDE Zip drive will need at least v5.3 of Tools95 for the Tools to work properly with it. And, I'm not sure about this, but a Zip Plus may need at least Tools95 v5.4 (I think that's what it shipped with anyway). Also, the 2GB Jaz drive shipped with Tools95 v5.51, but I don't know whether it requires that version.
The latest IomegaWare software is equivalent to v6.1 of Tools95. And if you're running Win98, you should probably use the IomegaWare rather than an older version of Tools95. However, if you have a parallel-port Zip drive, some people have reported (printer-related) problems with the new version of Ppa3.mpd (2.34) included with the IomegaWare under Win98.
If you decide you're going to install the software, it's best to close all unnecessary programs running in the background (everything but Explorer and Systray) first to prevent possible problems. You can press Ctrl-Alt-Del to access Win9x's Close Program window.
[Guest9x]With IomegaWare, the old Guest95 has been replaced by Guest9x. A nice new feature of Guest9x is that it allows you to set drive letters for your removable drives (as would normally be done in Device Manager).
If you have a parallel-port Zip drive (or a SCSI drive using the Jaz Traveller) and Guest9x fails to find your drive, then you can install the Iomega Parallel Port Interface manually. Go to Add New Hardware in Control Panel. Select "No" when asked if you want Windows to search for hardware. Under Hardware types, select SCSI controllers. Put the IomegaWare CD in the CD drive, and click on the Have Disk button. Browse to the W9xstuff directory on the CD, select Guest9x.inf, and click OK (twice). Then, you can choose the Iomega Parallel Port Interface from the list of devices. Or if you have Win98, you could point Have Disk to the Win98 CD-ROM; look for Ppa3.inf there. After you've installed the Iomega Parallel Port Interface, Win9x should see your drive if it's connected and powered on, and you should have basic read/write use of the drive.
To uninstall Iomega's software, first close any Iomega programs that may be running in the background (i.e. Imgicon and Iowatch) using Ctrl-Alt-Del. Next, go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and uninstall it (its description can vary depending on what version you've installed). Now, if it's still there, use Explorer to delete your entire Tools_95 directory (it's Program Files\Iomega\Tools with newer versions). And delete any remaining Iomega-related shortcuts from the StartUp folder and the Programs menu (the Programs menu is Windows\Start Menu\Programs, and the StartUp folder is a subdirectory of Programs). If the uninstall worked properly, there shouldn't be anything left for you to delete though. For parallel-port drives, the Iomega Parallel Port Interface should still be present; so your drive should still be recognized.
When upgrading, it's usually best to uninstall your existing version before installing the new one.
After installing the software, you should have at least 3 new shortcuts in the StartUp folder.
The Iomega Disk Icons shortcut runs Imgicon.exe which enables the special Iomega icons in Explorer and My Computer and causes Zip disks to be ejected when Win9x shuts down (provided you have at least Tools95 v5.0). Jaz disks do not eject automatically on shutdown as there's no reason for them to do so. But since it's not good to power Zip drives off/on with a disk inside, if you remove the Iomega Disk Icons shortcut from the StartUp folder, you should always remember to eject your Zip disk(s) before powering down the drive.
Beginning with IomegaWare 1.0, Imgicon.exe also causes a delete confirmation box to appear when deleting files from your Iomega drive. It warns you that your files will not be sent to the Recycle Bin. As long as you're using Explorer, you should not notice any functional change when deleting files. However, with 3rd-party file managers, when deleting many files at once, you may be asked to confirm each and every file which is deleted instead of having a single confirmation for the whole lot. You can prevent this by using Ctrl-Alt-Del to close Imgicon before deleting files this way.
Iomega Startup Options runs Imgstart.exe which sets the options on the Startup tab of the drive's Properties in My Computer to however you last set them (I believe it reads the values from the Registry and sends them to the drive). If you remove this from your StartUp folder, these settings should return to their default values next time you start the computer. This program does not stay resident in memory; it terminates after running.
Iomega Watch runs Iowatch.exe which automatically prompts you for a password when a read/write protected disk is inserted. It doesn't work with parallel-port drives, and it's disabled by default. To enable it, you'll need to run it again while it's already running to access its option window. There, you can set whether and how often it checks for read/write protected disks.
The IomegaWare software adds a Refresh shortcut to the StartUp folder. This runs refresh.exe which will add shortcuts for your Iomega drives to the desktop and to the My Documents and Send To folders. However, if you've used Remove Drive Shortcuts (stopcuts.exe), it will modify a value in the Registry so that refresh.exe no longer works. For those interested in Registry modification, look for a ShortcutPrefs key which contains a Do Refresh value (00 is disabled, 01 is enabled).
If you happen to have Iomega Backup 98 (or 97), you'll also have an Iomega Backup Scheduler shortcut added to your StartUp folder. Since I don't use any of Iomega's extra utilities, I'm not entirely sure what this does; and I removed it on my system. The help files for 1-Step Backup probably explain its function.
You don't need any of these. Use them or lose them; it's your choice. Just don't forget to eject your Zip disk(s) before powering down the Zip drive(s) if you remove Iomega Disk Icons.
I don't use these. So if you have questions about them, read their help files and the information at Iomega's website; and post any remaining questions to the alt.iomega.zip.jazz newsgroup.
Iomega has online tutorials for the following...
With Tools95 versions 5.0 through 5.51, you can tell what version you have by looking at the time stamps for the files in the Tools_95 (or Program Files\Iomega\Tools) directory. For example, the files from version 5.20 will show 5:20 AM; and the files for version 5.51 will show 5:51 AM. However, this doesn't apply to the IomegaWare.
Beginning with Tools95 v5.51, the version number at the bottom of the Iomega Properties windows for the drive in My Computer seems to follow the version number (it doesn't with earlier versions; it was stuck at 5.1 for a long time). The first version of IomegaWare, although it's called IomegaWare v1.0, shows v6.0 there indicating that it's equivalent to Tools95 v6.0.