7.5 Our Picks

Here are the high-capacity floppy disk drives we recommend:

For general-purpose systems

None. There's seldom reason to install a high-capacity FDD in a general-purpose system. For inexpensive archiving and backing up, or for transferring moderately large files between non-networked systems, a Plextor PlexWriter CD-RW drive with Ahead Software's Nero Burning ROM software is a much-superior solution in every respect—cost, performance, and reliability. For moderate capacity removable storage with drive letter access, we recommend a Plextor PlexWriter CD-RW drive with Ahead Software's InCD software, which makes a CD-RW disc look like a giant floppy. See Chapter 11 for more information about CD-RW drives and software.

For specialized applications

Zip Drive or SuperDisk Drive, according to specific requirements. About the only good reason to install a high-capacity FDD is to transfer moderately large files between systems that are not networked and cannot read (or read/write) CDs. For example, you may have a notebook computer that has a SuperDisk installed but does not have a CD writer or a network card. In that situation, installing a SuperDisk on your desktop system may be the simplest way to exchange files between the systems. Or you may need to exchange large graphics files with a pre-press graphics house that accepts only Zip disks, in which case installing a Zip250 Drive provides both reasonably high capacity and compatibility with the relatively large installed base of Zip100 and Zip250 Drives.

In general, the internal ATAPI models of either the Zip Drive or the SuperDisk Drive provide high performance, the fewest compatibility problems, and the lowest cost. However, if your application requires an external drive—perhaps because you need to move the drive from machine to machine—consider your choice of interface carefully per the guidelines listed earlier in the chapter. For more information about the drive, see http://www.iomega.com (Zip) and http://www.mke.panasonic.co.jp/en/device/device.htm (SuperDisk).

For updated recommendations, visit:

http://www.hardwareguys.com/picks/fdd.html