| Quite a few other data storage options were available at various times in the Mac's history. Most of these were made obsolete with the coming of writable CD and DVD. Table 31.1 summarizes several of these technologies of which only the USB flash device is still viable. Table 31.1. Removable Media Drive Options for Modern MacsTechnology | Configuration | Comments |
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USB Flash | USB | Various USB flash devices are available. These small devices, usually attached to a keychain or other portable item, plug in to a USB port, and you can store data on them. They offer various storage capacities and behave like other volumes you mount on your desktop. If you need to "carry" data with you among various computers, these devices can be a great option. | Floppy | USB, External | The good old floppy is still around. These drives enable you to read and write standard 3.5'' floppy disks. Some also enable you to read and write to 120MB "super" floppy disks. With the rise of CD-RW, DVD-RW, and USB flash, there isn't really any reason to keep using this technology. Apple long ago abandoned it; the PC world is finally letting go of it as well. | Zip | ATA, Internal FireWire, External USB, External SCSI, External | The Zip drive uses a 250MB or 100MB removable disk that costs about $12 per disk. At one point, Zip drives were extremely popular and were standard equipment on Power Macs. However, with the rise of the CD-RW and DVD-R drives, there isn't really any reason to use a Zip drive. Because a CD-R disc is only about $0.25 and holds nearly as much as three Zip disks, CD-R makes much more sense for most purposes. The rapid fall of Zip drives from a once-prominent place was amazing to see. | Jaz | SCSI, External | Jaz drives use a 2GB disk. However, a 2GB disk costs more than $100, so this technology can't compete very well with DVD-R (for which a 4.7GB disc costs less than $5) or CD-R for general data storage. This is another format that was extremely popular for a while, but has since gone the way of all obsolete technologies. |
NOTE An iPod shuffle can perform like a USB flash drive.
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