Moore's Law applies to disk drives, too. Every 18 months, the capacity seems to double. So do the choices. Here's a handicapper's guide to today's storage options.
The Iomega Zip Drive remains a best-seller, thanks to the original 100MB version more than the Zip 250. But the Zip is being edged aside by CD-R and CD-RW. The Iomega Jaz, the 2GB removable-drive cartridge, isn't cost-effective, at AU$250 per disk, and it's fading fast. By the time the Iomega PocketZip (née Clik!) staggered to market, a tiny 40MB, AU$20 disk didn't seem so exciting. Thus, it's been repositioned as portable music player storage.
The Iomega Peerless, an upcoming self-contained hard drive (AU$500 for a USB-based starter kit, and AU$260, $320, and $400 for a 5GB, 10GB, and 20GB module, respectively), could do well if Iomega generates enough market share to create an unofficial standard & agrave; la Zip.
High-Capacity Drives.
The idea of a high-capacity drive that also reads standard floppy disks was good. But the Zip's dominance killed the 120MB Imation Super Disk (LS-120), and the 200MB Sony HiFD never got off the ground.
Flash Memory.
Flash memory is for your digital camera, MP3 player, or file transfers from notebooks. All of the cards fit into notebooks with PC Card adapters (from no cost to AU$100) or into PCs with USB adapters (AU$50 to $100). If you need to choose between CompactFlash (CF) and SmartMedia, both the size of squared-off poker chips, you'll do better with the thicker CF, because more devices use it, and cf has twice the capacity of SmartMedia, with 128MB and 256MB commonly available.
As devices get smaller, the stamp-size Multi MediaCard (MMC) and its Secure Digital (SD) superset with rights management will gain popularity; they could knock off cf and SmartMedia. Sony claims 100-plus signatories to its Memory Stick standard, but it's mostly Sony producing the devices. For photos or music, you'll want 64MB minimum.
PC Card Hard Drives.
If you want to transfer or back up data off your notebook, look to the IBM Micro drive, at 340MB or 1GB (about AU$600 and $1,000, respectively). Or consider the 1GB Hitachi PC Card hard drive, or the 2GB Toshiba model (each about AU$1,000). The Microdrive is actually a CompactFlash PC Card hard drive, and if you can live with the high battery drain, you can use it in many digital cameras.
If you want to back up your entire notebook, consider an external hard drive that connects via the PC Card slot. Such drives are available from a number of makers, including CMS, in 6gb to 30GB models. Last year, I was keen on the external 10GB IBM Travelstar 10E; now it seems a bit bulky.
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