Combo Drive aka Combination Drive

A Combo Drive is a type of optical drive that combines CD-R/CD-RW recording capability with the ability to read (but not write) DVD media. The term is used almost exclusively by Apple Inc. as a name for the low-end substitute for their high-end SuperDrive, which was designed to both read and write DVD and DVD recordable media. The device was created as a mid-range option between a CD burner and a DVD burner, which at the time the Combo drive was introduced was generally an expensive option costing in excess of US$300 a unit.

Combo drives are becoming less and less common on new systems, though they do occasionally appear in lieu of CD-only drives on low-end computers and business computers to lower production and sale costs. The cost difference between a Combo drive and DVD burner has been steadily declining in recent years, so most new PCs (except for the low-end budget computers) have a DVD burner (which also reads and writes CDs).

In current Apple computers, none contain Combo Drives. As of October 2008, the MacBook comes with a SuperDrive as standard, and as of March 2009, the Mac mini comes with a SuperDrive as opposed to the usual Combo Drive

Related Brands
Dell
IBM
HP Hewlett Packard
Compaq
Toshiba
Apple
Lenovo
Panasonic

Floppy Disk Drives are older removable storage devices.

Floppy Disk Drives aka Flexible Disk Drives are conceptually a more primitive version of the USB or (Universal Serial Bus) we use today.  The most common type of floppy disk drive is the 3.5 inch drive,  followed by 5.25 inch and then the 8 inch drive which was produced in the 1960’s to 1970’s. Although 8 inch drives are obsolete, some people still use these drives.  A 3.5 inch floppy disk is a thin-light weight diskette that can fit in a regular sized pocket.  The back end of a floppy disk drive has a port (i.e. connector) that connects the disk with the motherboard. It is best to purchase external floppy drives that are USB based so you can move them from system to system.

Today most people find it very convenient to use USB drives rather than floppy disk drives. Basically, USB drives are physically very small compared to floppy disk drives and its mass storage capacity ranges beyond or higher than 2Gb.

LTO Tape Drives - Terabytes on your desktop?

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With a dizzying array of formats for tape drives, it can be daunting for business or home users to decide on the right backup solution for his or her business. After you search on-line for tape drives, you may see esoteric names like AIT, Mammoth, VXA, Data8, 8mm, DDS, DAT, 4mm, SLR, QIC, Ditto, SAIT, Travan, Magstar, DLT, SDLT, ADR, TX-2, and therefore the list goes on! No wonder why it is thus so confusing for people to decide when considering information storage backup solutions.

One widespread format adopted by several corporations, is the LTO format or standard. LTO stands for Linear Tape Open. LTO technology utilizes a magnetic tape cartridge that is four inches square cartridge and has a thickness of half an inch thick. There are 3 firms that started the LTO Consortium: HP, IBM, and Certance (was Seagate and now is Quantum).

In the earlier days of tape storage throughout the mid Eighties, the DLT format was the de-facto half inch cartridge standard in the market. Then the LTO format was released in an effort to displace the present DLT format. The similarity of size and form factor of the new LTO half-inch cartridges makes it easier for users of robotic tape libraries to migrate from DLT to LTO libraries.

LTO Ultrium is often used for the name of this open format technology since every generation will increase its native storage capability. LTO-1 has 100GB, LTO-2 has 200GB, LTO-3 jumps up to 400GB, LTO-4 has 800GB, and LTO-5 has 1500GB (1.5 Terabytes). Do you know what a Terabyte is?

New options are being added with every generation. The new LTO-4 and LTO-5 have encryption capabilities so tape cartridges have the info on them safely locked from intrusion by using Advanced Encryption which is  called AES Encryption methodology 256 bit. Starting with LTO-5, the fifth generation, there's currently partitioning. By dividing up the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) into totally different partitions, this permits faster access times and additionally improved information management.

Future generations of LTO will keep increasing the storage capacity. One day, one cartridge can hold multiple TERABYTES of information.

Related LTO Brands
HP Hewlett Packard
IBM
Compaq
Dell
Quantum
Imation
Tandberg Data
Sun Microsystems

LTO Tape Drives – Terabytes on your desktop?

With a dizzying array of formats for tape drives, it can be daunting for business or home users to decide on the right backup solution for his or her business. After you search on-line for tape drives, you may see esoteric names like AIT, Mammoth, VXA, Data8, 8mm, DDS, DAT, 4mm, SLR, QIC, Ditto, SAIT, Travan, Magstar, DLT, SDLT, ADR, TX-2, and therefore the list goes on! No wonder why it is thus so confusing for people to decide when considering information storage backup solutions.

One widespread format adopted by several corporations, is the LTO format or standard. LTO stands for Linear Tape Open. LTO technology utilizes a magnetic tape cartridge that is four inches square cartridge and has a thickness of half an inch thick. There are 3 firms that started the LTO Consortium: HP, IBM, and Certance (was Seagate and now is Quantum).

In the earlier days of tape storage throughout the mid Eighties, the DLT format was the de-facto half inch cartridge standard in the market. Then the LTO format was released in an effort to displace the present DLT format. The similarity of size and form factor of the new LTO half-inch cartridges makes it easier for users of robotic tape libraries to migrate from DLT to LTO libraries.

LTO Ultrium is often used for the name of this open format technology since every generation will increase its native storage capability. LTO-1 has 100GB, LTO-2 has 200GB, LTO-3 jumps up to 400GB, LTO-4 has 800GB, and LTO-5 has 1500GB (1.5 Terabytes). Do you know what a Terabyte is?

New options are being added with every generation. The new LTO-4 and LTO-5 have encryption capabilities so tape cartridges have the info on them safely locked from intrusion by using Advanced Encryption which is  called AES Encryption methodology 256 bit. Starting with LTO-5, the fifth generation, there’s currently partitioning. By dividing up the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) into totally different partitions, this permits faster access times and additionally improved information management.

Future generations of LTO will keep increasing the storage capacity. One day, one cartridge can hold multiple TERABYTES of information.

Related LTO Brands
HP Hewlett Packard
IBM
Compaq
Dell
Quantum
Imation
Tandberg Data
Sun Microsystems