Bigger proves better as disk rivals CD capacity

By ADAM GIFFORD

Iomega executive Scott Dillon tosses a zip disk against the wall.

"Your data's still safe," he says. "You can't do that with a CD."

Yet the latest 750Mb disk is close to the capacity of the CD-R.

Dillon, an Iomega senior manager, says Iomega will also make a higher-capacity disk, but it will have to sacrifice backwards capacity.

The 750MB zip drive can read and write 250MB disks, though at slower speeds than a native 250MB drive. It can also read 100MB disks.

A universal serial bus (USB) 2.0 version is being released next month at $599, with the disks costing about $40. A Firewire version and the ATAPI version for internal installation will follow in November.

While rewriteable CDs may seem to make zip disks unnecessary, they fill different needs, which is why Iomega also makes CD burners.

Dillon says 34.8 per cent of zip disks are used to move data, 30.8 per cent for backups and the rest for archiving.

In contrast, 35.2 per cent of CD-Rs are used to make copies of presentations or data, 33.5 per cent to record music and the rest for storing pictures.

"With zips you have data integrity. You put your data on there, you don't have to check it again to make sure it burned properly," he says.

The new zip 750MB drive has a 50x50x50 read/write/rewrite speed and a transfer rate of up to 8MB a second, compared with 0.9MB a second for the zip 250MB drive.

Unlike CDs, zip disks can be password protected. The 750MB drive also has a slot to take a security lock.

"We didn't put one in the 250MB drive for design reasons and we lost a lot of sales because of it, particularly in the education sector," Dillon says.

"One of the most common questions people asked was whether they could drill a hole in the case to take a lock without voiding the warranty."

Zip 750MB disks are compatible with PCs and Macs. They automatically recognise the operating system and format themselves.

The software bundled with the drive includes Iomega Automatic Backup and Iomega Sync to help to synchronise files between computers.

The Zip 750MB drive is available with USB connectivity.

Firewire and internal ATAPI versions will be available in November.