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A recent survey I saw reported there are over 10 BILLION 3.5'' floppy discs
manufactured.

The Imation LS-120 has a capacity of 120MB and can also read/write the 1.44
MB floppy.  It has been around for about 2-3 years and has grown quite
popular.

The ZIP drive has a capacity of 100 MB and cannot read/write the 1.44 MB
floppy.  It has been around longer than the LS-120 and is extremely
popular.  It's almost a standard onto itself.  This month, the 250 MB was
released.  It can read/write the 100 MB discs though not the 1.44 MB
floppy.

The Sony HDFD has a capacity of 200 MB and can read/write the 1.44 MB
floppy. It is just starting to be introduced.

So I am not ready to jump to any conclusions.  The Sony and the Imation
offerings both do 1.44 MB floppies and have their own proprietary formats
for larger size.  The Sony is bigger, but the Imation has been around much
longer.  The ZIP drive cannot read the floppy, but it seems like almost
everybody (but me) has one.

I bought an LS-120 last year, because I liked the fact it could replace my
floppy drive and give me 120 MB of storage.  My Compaq Armada laptop, which
is also my desktop replacement, has a multibay arrangement where I can put
in a CD-ROM, a DVD, a floppy drive, an LS-120 drive, a second battery or a
second hard drive.  When I travel, I can take quick, worthwhile backups of
my files on the LS-120 and I have tested completely so that I know it can
do everything a floppy can do plus a lot more.  So I have stored the floppy
drive, as I don't use it anymore.  Soon, I may pick up a DVD drive to
replace the 20X CD-ROM and invest in an MPE2 decoder card, and then my 2
year old laptop will let me watch DVD movies. :)  Multibays are a must with
this rapidly evolving technology known as mobile computing.

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP America, Inc.
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com



-----Original Message-----
From:   Nick Demos [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, 17 March, 1999 11:02 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Cc:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: Off Topic: 2MB Floppy

Denys Beauchemin wrote:
>
> X<< some snipped>
>
> Sony has released the 200 MB floppy drive, which can also read/write
1.44MB
> floppies.  So now, it's going to be a battle between Zip drives, LS-120
> drives and the Sony HDHD.
>
Denys, I think the Sony HDHD has a great edge rxactly because it
will also
read/write 1.44 MB disks, of which there are probably tens of
millions.

Regards,

Nick