Iomega faces bug lawsuit

Personal storage manufacturer Iomega has been hit with a lawsuit over its so-called 'click of death' product bug, which has damaged a number of its Zip storage drives.

Earlier this year, several Iomega customers discovered that their Zip drives would suddenly begin clicking, sometimes ceasing to work and even damaging disks and the data on them.

Last week, the company admitted there had been a class action lawsuit filed against it the previous week in a US court, alleging that the clicking noise could damage a Zip drive or disks.

James Sierk, president and chief executive of Iomega, insisted: 'We have been, and are, taking strong measures to be responsive to the needs of our customers who might have a problem with any Iomega product.

'This lawsuit is unfortunate, especially since our Zip drive return rates are at an all time low,' he added.

In a statement, the manufacturer claimed that less than 0.5 per cent of its Zip drive customers had contacted the company complaining of problems related to clicking noises.

Iomega added that it believed the allegations were totally unfounded and intended to defend the suit vigorously.

The manufacturer has recently signed a number of agreements with computer manufacturers to include its storage products with PCs as standard devices.

However its most recent financial results - for the second quarter ended 30 June - showed a loss of nearly $34 million, compared with $26 million profit posted for the same period last year.