The solution to your problem is a removable storage drive. Their capacities rival and in some cases exceed a typical hard disk, but the great thing is that when you fill up a disk, you can just pop in a new one for only pennies per megabyte. It’s just like having enormously large floppy disks.
Removable drives have other advantages too, like enabling you to transfer large amounts of data from computer to computer, or providing maximum security for sensitive data -- just lock the disk in a safe place.
There are five new removable drive technologies on the market right now, varying in price, capacity, and the technology behind them. Here’s a brief overview.
The first device is called a Zip Drive, and it’s made by a company called Iomega. It’s available for both PCs and Macs. The removable data cartridge, although not much bigger in size than a standard floppy disk, has a capacity of 100MB. In fact, the whole drive is not much bigger than a paperback book, although it requires an external transformer/power supply. It uses a hybrid of two technologies -- standard hard drive heads and the magnetic media used in floppy disks. The drive costs under $200, and the cartridges cost about $20 each; 25MB cartridges are also available for $10 each. The only downside to this device is performance. The speed of a hard drive (known as average seek time) is measured in thousandths of a second, or milliseconds (ms). The hard drive in your computer probably measures in the 12 to 15ms range, which is quite good and is what you are used to now. The average seek time for a Zip Drive is 29ms, or approximately twice as slow as a typical hard drive. If you plan on using a Zip Drive for secondary storage or backing up your primary hard drive, this is probably not an issue. But if you plan to use it as a second primary hard drive, or for multimedia reproduction involving sound or video which requires maximum performance and fast drive speed, this is probably not fast enough.
Enter the SyQuest EZ135 Drive. Like the Zip Drive, you can get one for either a PC or a Mac. Unlike the Zip Drive, whose cartridge uses a flexible platter like a floppy disk, the EZ135 uses an actual hard disk in the cartridge, just like the one in your computer. As a result, the seek time is comparable to a normal hard disk -- just 13.5 ms. This makes it ideal for virtually any type of data, from complex multimedia to ordinary text. And, to top it off, not only does the drive itself cost the same as the Zip Drive, but the cartridges hold 135MB for the same price as the 100MB Zip Drive cartridge. To me, the EZ135 Drive is the ideal combination of low price, good capacity, and excellent performance.
Both the Iomega Zip Drive and the SyQuest EZ135 Drive are available in external models that hook up to a SCSI port (Mac or PC) or a parallel port (PC) on your computer. In addition, the EZ135 comes in an internal IDE version that hooks up to your existing hard drive controller board.
The third relative newcomer to the removable drive market, the Jaz Drive, is also made by Iomega. But whereas the Zip Drive’s capacity is 100MB, the Jaz Drive holds ten times as much – 1000MB, or 1GB (gigabyte). The performance characteristics of this drive are also remarkable: the seek time is 12ms, and the drive can transfer a maximum of 6.73 megabytes per second. That’s the fastest among the drives we’re discussing. And the price for this little gem? A reasonable $599 estimated street price for the drive and $99 per 1GB cartridge. That’s only about 10 cents per megabyte. The 3.5-inch cartridge houses two aluminum-based hard drive platters and four read/write heads – two for each platter, one on each side. The drive attaches to your computer – PC or Mac – via a SCSI controller. A PC-only IDE model is planned. Some mailorder computer companies are starting to offer PCs with Jaz Drives installed at the factory. As an upgrade add-on, all I can say is: if you can afford one, get one!
The next drive to investigate is the Panasonic PC/CD-ROM, the first of the next-generation rewritable-optical drives, which combines the mechanical components of a quad-speed CD-ROM drive with new phase-change rewritable technology. A laser beam heats the reflective media and creates nonreflective spots, corresponding to the nonreflective pits in an otherwise reflective CD disc. The main drawback to this approach, however, is the inherent slow speed of CD-ROM drives: 165ms. The upside is the large capacity, which is the same as a CD-ROM – 650 MB – and the long life of the media, which is 30 years. This makes it ideal for long-term archival backups. The drive costs about $649, and the media cost is $50 per cartridge, or about 8 cents per megabyte, making it also quite economical. Too bad it’s so slow. The drive requires a standard SCSI adapter – there are no parallel-port or IDE options.
Finally, we have the Pinnacle Micro Apex, which represents significant advances in magneto-optical recording technology. Its 5.25-inch cartridge has by far the most capacity – a whopping 4.6GB – but it’s also by far the most expensive drive in our discussion – a whopping $1495. With an average seek time of 17ms, it has respectable performance, and with an expected media life of 30 years, it’s also an attractive option for long-term archival storage. Like the Panasonic drive, the Pinnacle drive attaches through a SCSI controller, and no parallel-port or IDE options are offered.
Depending on your uses and your budget, one of these removable storage drives should offer a solution to the problem of rapidly-increasing amounts of data devouring your hard drive space.
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