PC Hardware in a Nutshell, Second Edition

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 ...