Re: HiFD
Stitch, LT:
The funny thing is, I would have agreed with you a year and a half ago. I believed the LS-120, with its backward compatibility with 1.44FD, would probably best the Zip in the marketplace. Clearly, subsequent events have refuted that hypothesis.
Due to some combination of :
* skillful marketing by Iomega,
* awful marketing by the LS-120 clan, and
* an installed base lead by Zip in certain key market segments,
LS-120 has not actualized its potential.
Today we have a different picture.
I suggest that backward compatibility with 1.44 has become almost completely irrelevant. All software is shipped on CD. All hardware vendors now ship their drivers on CD. The transfer of FDD-size data or files can now be much more readily accomplished via the Net.
The FDD may be SERVICEABLE, as you say Stitch, but allow me to say, who would WANT to? Today, the ONLY reason for which anyone really needs an FDD is booting a PC. And were it not for the complete bungling of the CDROM clan, Microsoft, Intel, and some other culpable parties to replace the PC FDD boot functionality with CD boot functionality, FDD would today be extinct. How many times have you wished you could boot from a CD? How many times have you been asked by others how they could boot from CD? When installing an OS, think how much faster and more efficient the process if able to boot from CD.
Steve Jobs, characteristically leading the curve, has himself embodied the move away from FDD in the iMac.
HiFD is indeed an order of magnitude up from 1.44 ... but so is LS-120. HiFD is NOT an order of magnitude up from LS-120. Do you see HiFD succeeding where LS-120 has failed? LS-120 had only Zip to compete against. HiFD must compete against ORB, Jaz, Sparq ... and CD-R. If there is a recordable format that the broad market has embraced, it is CD-R.
No, gentlemen, I say I am still far from a believer in HiFD.
Still, the technology may not be without suitable niche markets. Suppose, for example, that Sony were able to design and build a new version of their FD-7 digital camera (which currently incorporates a 1.44 FDD) with HiFD instead. As a heavy digital camera user myself, 200MB removable media in my digital camera is a compelling concept.
Back to you. <g>
God bless,
PX
P.S. I've solved the booting issue by simply replicating my hard disks using PowerQuest's excellent software. I no longer employ FDD in most of my systems.
For those who would like more info on bootable CDROM, try:
cdpage.com
Phoenix Technologies and IBM have jointly released the "El Torito" Bootable CD-ROM Format specification, which defines how a boot image or images should be placed physically on the CD-ROM. The specification contains a lot of low-level details concerning the structure and makeup of the bootable disc. The bad news is that it takes a while to wade through the specification to figure out exactly how to set up a disc for bootability. |
