ZIP drives
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Iomega ZIP drives recently have become very popular, the main reasons for this is that they are about the size of a 3 1/2 floppy but can store 100 Mb or more in this relatively small space.
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A zip drive has a magnetic coated mylar disc called the cookie inside the hard plastic case, the only access point is the metal plate which slides open to expose the cookie to the read/write heads.
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When the zip disc is inserted into the zip drive, the metal shield that protects the cookie slides to one side to allow the read/write heads access. A metal hub is then engaged by a motor which spins at speeds of 3,000rpm. This spin rate is almost nine times faster than the spin rate of a 3.5 floppy disc, and in turn enables the zip drive to achieve much greater access times.
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The read/write heads then extend into the casing, there is a read/write head for each side of the cookie. The read/write heads in a zip drive are about one tenth the size of a floppy's heads. These smaller heads enable the zip drive to write data using 2,118 tracks per inch, this is instead of the 135 tracks per inch on a floppy disk.
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