Here's a comparative look at all the significant removable storage technologies. Maybe this is the worng thread, but this is the thread that is most read. Hopefully this will clear up the confusion as to what the different technologies are.
From PC Magazine: The Perfect PC:
With removable mass storage, what is perfect depends on the user. Some types of storage drive stress low cost per megabyte, while others deliver quick access time and high data throughput. Some offer great portability, and still others boast shareability.
If you're looking for an inexpensive and easy way to back up your PC or a network server, tape is a good solution. These drives are available in internal and external units for individual PCs as well as jukebox configurations for networks. They are among the most affordable (as low as $150) and boast the lowest cost per megabyte of any mass-storage medium: as little as one-tenth of a cent. At the high end,4-mm DAT (digital audio tape) and 8-mm tape drives each have long track records of reliability and are ideal for networked configurations. For the desktop PC or small server, the new Travan technology packs anywhere from 400MB to 4GB of data onto a tape, depending on the drive. The drawback is in performance: Since tape is
linear, the drive must spin through the reel to reach the data you've requested; access time can be 30 seconds or more. So tape is best as a backup medium for files you rarely if ever need to access.
One of the hottest storage options these days is CD-R, or compact disk-recordable. These drives let you create your own CD-ROM disks (up to 650MB) from $7-apiece blank CD media. The drives have steadily
been coming down in price and are available for as little as $500, though more typical prices range from $700 to $1,000. CD-R's allure is distributability: Because the vast majority of PCs come equipped with CD-ROM drives, you can create and distribute disks and be almost certain recipients can access the data. The capacity and relatively good performance--400-ms (400-millisecond)access time and 600-KBps (600-kilobyte-per-second)transfer rate--also make the disks ideal for multimedia presentations and training videos that would otherwise
hog a hard disk. So far, though, CD-R software has been tough to work with for novice users, and the range of CD-ROM data types can be intimidating. But with a little practice (and a few wasted disks), most savvy users can be using CD-R for archiving, data distribution, and even creating their own audio CDs. The coming CD-E(compact disk-erasable) drives will let you rewrite disks.
A competing type of drive is Panasonic's PD/CD-ROM drive (about $500). These drives can read standard CD-ROM disks, and they can also write (and rewrite)proprietary 650MB cartridges ($45 each). With an access time of 165 ms and throughput of 870 KBps, they are much faster than CD-R drives and are ideal for storing large, often-used files and even entire applications.
Another popular category is proprietary cartridge drives. Iomega's Zip drive (about $200) stores 100MB on each 3.5-inch cartridge ($15 apiece) and offers great portability for use with a laptop or for shuttling data between home and office. Iomega also offers its $500 Jaz drive. It can fit 1GB of data on each $99 cartridge. The SyQuest EZ-135 (also $200) fits 135MB on each $20 cartridge, and it comes close to hard disk performance.
A possible threat to the Zip and EZ-135 comes from the next-generation floppy disk drive, the LS-120. Made by MKE, the floppy-disk-drive giant, and first incorporated into Compaq PCs, LS-120 drives can read traditional 1.44MB floppies, but they can also write new floppy disks that hold 120MB of information.
Competing technologies are coming from other manufacturers, though, and it will be interesting to watch how this plays out.
Magneto-optical drives have been around for a while and are seeing a resurgence in popularity. MO drives come in two formats: 3.5-inch, with capacities to 230MB; and 5.25-inch, which can now write 2.6GB cartridges. Because of their excellent performance (20- to 50-ms access times and a 2-MBps transfer rate) and nearly indestructible media, MO drives are ideal for storing large amounts of frequently
used data near-line.
If you need a cartridge drive system to shuttle files back and forth between your business and a service bureau (such as a prepress house), consider a drive like a 5.25-inch-format SyQuest drive ($350). These proprietary drives can fit 200MB or more of data per cartridge and are firmly entrenched in the desktop publishing and graphic-arts communities.
Looking forward, we can expect the coming DVD format to spawn DVD-R, perhaps by the end of next year. The successor to CD-R, DVD-R will let you create your own DVD disks to be read in DVD players, which should become standard over the next three to five years. These disks will hold up to 8.5GB on each disk and offer better performance than today's CD-R drives.
Also, rumor on the street is that Iomega's PC Expo press conference will be held Thursday, not today. Can anyone substantiate this?
regards,
trakker (very looooooong on IOMG) |
