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Exabyte Adds 120MB Drive to Its Removable Series

Drive reads 120MB disks or standard floppies.

By Paul Heltzel, PCWorld   

Made by Mitsubishi, the drive docks into an internal or external IDE-compatible frame that Exabyte calls a %dquotnest.%dquot A frame can be installed in a 5.25-inch drive bay of more than one PC, and maintain permanent electrical and data connections. You can then hot swap the LS-120 disk drive into any nest without having to reconnect the power and data cables. A handle, like those found on removable car stereos, makes it easy to unplug the unit.

The frame can also dock certain other appropriately configured 3.5-inch devices, such as Exabyte%squots Travan 4 tape drive or a specially made Iomega Zip drive. The drive reads and writes other manufacturers%squot LS-120 disks such as those from the LS-120 drives sold by Compaq Computer as well as standard 3.5-inch floppies.

In recent issues of PC World, the Eagle Nest housing a removable Travan 3.2GB tape drive received high marks for ease of installation and hassle-free backup between multiple PCs. In early spring, the company plans to expand the product line with an external Nest and a swappable 1.4GB hard drive.

The Eagle Nest LS-120 ships for $230 with nest or $195 without the docking device. An additional nest costs $90.

One drawback: The unit does not come with a disk. The 120MB disks are fairly inexpensive--between $15 and $20 each.