Tech Reviews -- Superdisk Packs In More Backup Data Than Before

If you've been checking out relatively inexpensive (under $200) portable storage devices, you know the market is dominated by Zip drive devices made by Iomega, and to a lesser extent Syquest.

While many users are satisfied with those products, an attractive alternative has arrived. Enter LS-120 or SuperDisk technology, co-developed by Imation (formerly 3M data storage products), Compaq, Panasonic and OR Technology.

What's intriguing about SuperDisk is the comforting feeling that an old friend has been given new life. Imation packs 120 megabytes of data on a familiar-looking 1.44 megabyte, 3.5 inch floppy, and the drive is backward compatible with (it will read and write to) both 1.44 MB and 720 kilobyte diskettes.

Like conventional diskette technology, SuperDisk is a magnetic-information system where a head reads and writes to data tracks. But SuperDisk diskettes have a "servo pattern," or sets of optical stitches, etched into it. The "LS" stands for laser servo, referring to the device's use of laser optics to read the pattern.

"If you could imagine moving the grooves in an old-fashioned record album much closer together, you could record a lot more music on the same album," Imation marketing manager Jon Siegel explains. "You also need a stylus that's much finer to get into that groove. . . . That's essentially what LS-120 technology does on a diskette."

Precise positioning allows SuperDisk technology to use 2,490 data tracks per inch, compared with 135 tracks per inch for conventional 3.5-inch diskette, Imation says.

Installation is a snap, although if you already have another device passing through your parallel port (such as a tape drive), you will have to make a choice: Get another parallel port, or swap out the devices as you need them because daisy chaining is not recommended.

SuperDisk drive works as an external device with any PC with a parallel port, and is also available as a retrofit, upgrade kit for any PC with a standard IDE controller. In addition, there are software drivers for Windows 3.1x and Windows NT (3.51 or newer). Winstation Systems of Moses Lake has announced its support of LS-120 technology for Macintosh computers (see http://www. winstation.com).

More information about the technology is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ls120.com and at http://www.imation.com/superdisk/.

As with any external-storage device, the allure includes portability and, perhaps more important, peace of mind knowing your most important work or personal files are backed up.

Bob Amatruda, an analyst with IDC, a Framingham, Mass.-based research firm, says the low-end storage-device market is booming.

He notes that Iomega, which introduced Zip drives in March 1995, claimed this month to have surpassed the 8 million mark. Amatruda says that, overall, the market grew by 67 percent over last year, and expects the trend to continue.

He describes LS-120 technology as "a fabulous idea. . . . They're going after literally hundreds of millions of people who have diskettes out there who need backward compatibility, but want the option of more space to save data."

LS-120 backers are starting modestly by introducing the storage drives as after-market devices. But they are aiming high, hoping the technology eventually will replace conventional 1.44 drives as standard, original equipment on desktop and notebook computers.

They see notebooks as a particularly potential sweet spot because the technology's slim-line drive (12.7 mm in height) avoids the need for an additional bay.

SuperDisk ships with a performance-enhancing software utility for Windows 95. Called "performance accelerator," it uses data caching and buffering to transfer large files from the hard disk to the SuperDisk in the background while users move on to other tasks.

With the accelerator, SuperDisk claims its transfer rate is about the same as the Iomega Zip drive's, up to 17 megabytes/minute. The software takes control of the eject button (so that the diskette pops out in case you forgot it was in) and also makes it impossible to inadvertently shut down the PC while data transfers.

Imation's SuperDisk parallel-port drive product carries a suggested retail price of $199.99, but a $50 rebate will be in effect at least through the end of the year. The unit comes with one SuperDisk diskette loaded with about 1 MB of installation software. SuperDisk diskettes are available in three-packs for $49.99.