Amorphous iron-zirconium alloys have been obtained by mechanical alloying (MA) starting from either pure elemental powders or from intermetallic compounds. X-ray diffraction was used in monitoring the amorphization process. Differences in the amorphization kinetics have been detected for the two different starting situations. The possibility of obtaining totally amorphous samples when starting from intermetallic compounds has been discussed. Amorphous iron-zirconium ribbons were also obtained by the classical melt-spinning (MS) method. A detailed structural comparison of the radial distribution functions led to the conclusion that the arrangement of the first neighbours is indistinguishable in the amorphous samples prepared by MA and MS methods.