click of death

click of death
 n.

   A syndrome of certain Iomega ZIP drives, named for the clicking noise
   that is caused by the malady. An affected drive will, after accepting
   a disk, will start making a clicking noise and refuse to eject the
   disk. A common solution for retrieving the disk is to insert the bent
   end of a paper clip into a small hole adjacent to the slot. "Clicked"
   disks are generally unusable after being retrieved from the drive.

   The clicking noise is caused by the drive's read/write head bumping
   against its movement stops when it fails to find track 0 on the disk,
   causing the head to become misaligned. This can happen when the drive
   has been subjected to a physical shock, or when the disk is exposed to
   an electromagnetic field, such as that of the CRT. Another common
   cause is when a package of disks is armed with an anti-theft strip at
   a store. When the clerk scans the product to disarm the strip, it can
   demagnetize the disks, wiping out track 0.

   There is evidence that the click of death is a communicable disease; a
   "clicked" disk can cause the read/write head of a "clean" drive to
   become misaligned. Iomega at first denied the existence of the click
   of death, but eventually offered to replace free of charge any drives
   affected by the condition.