We all know the capacity of a FAT-16 MS-DOS formatted floppy disk, don't we?
1.44MB for a High Density and 720KB for a Double Density, for 3.5" floppies at least.
It's possible to squeeze more out of them with specialist formatting tools, but these
are the standard capacities we all know and LOVE.
So what if I told you that I could fit 120MB or even 240MB of data onto this 3.5" floppy
disk.
Look, it even fits in a standard floppy drive.
Well, you've got the remainder of this video to pick your jaws up off the floor, because
that's exactly what I'm going to be talking about.
THIS is the Maxell LS120 Super Disk Drive.
To be more precise, it's the box for a Maxell LS120 Super Disk Drive - with the LS standing
for Laser Servo - but it's contents transforms the humble floppy into something.... well,
more useful.
Something which allows you to "Plug & Save".
Mmmmmm, look at all that digital media on the back.
Let's get into the box first, and then we can discuss in more detail.
So we've got drivers for all the operating systems I care about, always handy.
Inside, there's a manual, a couple of those magic 120MB disks, a parallel connection cable,
power adaptor, a set of non magical standard high density disks annnnd the Super Disk Drive
itself....
the case looks like it's popped open a bit, but that shouldn't affect operation.
Now you can have this thing lay flat on your desk, or use this plastic mount for vertical
positioning.
I think we'll go for some vertical action today.
Conserve some desk space for additional clutter.
So, each of these disks has its own plastic case, but otherwise it's almost identical
to a standard 3.5" floppy.
We've space for label, a write protect notch, even the access cover which snaps back into
place.
Sure the design is different to differentiate it, but otherwise its a 3.5" disk, it even
weighs the same.
Lots of lovely information in the manual about setting up and what-not, but let's just dive
straight in.
I'm going to use my Amstrad Integra, with Windows 98 to kick things off.
The cable plugs straight into the parallel port, providing a pass-through if you had
a printer connected as well.
This then plugs into the Super Disk drive, using a connector reminiscent of a Joystick
socket. Power cord in the top and we're good to go.
We get a green access light on power on, and a reassuring sound, so let's install some
drivers.
Whilst that's installing and rebooting, let's cover some history.
Now the original SuperDisk hardware was designed by 3M, under the Imation brand, who in 1997
who licenced the technology out to companies such as Matsushita & Mitsubishi, whilst also
sold under the Maxell brand... rather appropriate for 3M to find 3 companies beginning with
the letter "M".
The design stemmed from a project at Iomega, using lasers to guide a magnetic head, allowing
for much greater precision than in mechanical floppy drives.
This is known as floptical technology, and serves as one of the last products to use
it.
Of course Iomega had pretty much abandoned the project when they released their own Super
Floppy incarnation....
the ZIP drive in 1994, and so the SuperDisk was starting on a back foot.
The world needed a replacement for the 3.5" floppy, and this is what 3M and it's licencees
hoped the SuperDisk would serve as.
Now, you might notice that the Windows '98 boot screen has been here for quite a while,
and that's because it's crashed.
If we dig into the Windows device manager, we can see that the device halted Windows
and therefore it will never be started ever again... that's a firm commitment for an operating
system.
The SuperDisk control panel tells us that the driver isn't loaded, so clearly something
has gone terribly wrong.
My first port of call was to remove these ZIP disk drivers, but that did nothing.
Neither did changing the Parallel port communication type, or removing and re-installing.
It could be any number of things, so rather than dick about, I brought in my trusty Compaq
Presario for some classic DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 testing instead.
Luckily we have drivers for all these eventualities.
And check out that DOS installation program.
Isn't that just erotic.
A quick re-boot and, yes, we can see the drivers initialising here...
SUCCESS, we have our SuperDisk drive setup as Drive D:, now all we need to do is navigate
to it, and voila, a 120MB floppy drive at our disposal.
MARVELLOUS STUFF.
Chkdsk returns 125,958,144 bytes of total disk space.
So we actually get 125MB on these things.
Not sure why they didn't advertise it as that, opting to use Mebibytes instead.
I mean we're talking over 3 additional floppies here.
But anyway, the far more visually stimulating Scandisk runs pretty quick but actually reports
the drive's backup FAT as being inconsistent.
But worry not, let us boot into Windows and chuck some files about.
As we're using Windows 3.11, no additional drivers are necessary.
Although if you're that way inclined, you can install the supplied DoubleZip allowing
up to whopping 240MB on each disk - much like DriveSpace, or the more troublesome DoubleSpace
supplied with DOS - however, it wouldn't boot in my version of Windows.
So onward.
Now, I thought I'd attempt copying a coverdisk CD onto the SuperDisk.
The manual tells us is can achieve a continuous transfer rate of 270KB/s.
Several times faster than a standard floppy drive, but it didn't take long for further
problems to set in.
Now this unit is clearly getting old, so it probably has alignment issues, but it only
managed to copy some 5MB, along with a plethora of lost allocation units before crashing Windows.
Attempts to format each of the SuperDisks with the bundled Format utility also failed,
which is a shame, but aligns with the success of the hardware in the marketplace.
The SuperDisk wasn't the floppy disk replacement it's manufacturers hoped it to be.
Given the larger ZIP drive & disks had been out for several years already, it had established
itself in that niche of the market, whilst the other part was being served by CD-ROM
or even writable CD drives if you were fortunate enough.
Whilst the SuperDisk had the ability to read and write standard floppy disks, or in the
case of my drive - fail to read them, it's not like it worked the other way around, and
even if you installed a drive internally via.
IDE or via.
SCSI you'd still likely need to retain your standard drive connected to a floppy interface,
acting as the all important A: drive...
(although WindowsXP would later have the ability to see a SuperDisk as an A: drive).
The SuperDisk was faster than the floppy, but even the ZIP 100 drive could shift data
around at 1.4MB/s, although real world Parallel connections were a lot slower.
Zip drives were more established, about the same price and also seemed to be a little
more dependable, with many complaining about the fragility and reliability issues of the
Superdisk medium.
Although Zip disks definitely had their own problems... a common issue when pushing portable
storage to the limits... as we've witnessed today.
But Superdisk fought on with the 240 model released in 2001, developed by Matsushita,
featuring a spangled USB connection, and even allowing you to store up to 32MB on a standard
floppy disk.
But this was also the same year as the ZIP 250 drive appeared, which was superseded only
a year later by the much faster Zip 750 drive.
Although it had some great intentions, SuperDisk it seems was relegated to a distant memory
of floptical media, whilst ZIP struggled on before being relegated by the almighty USB
drive.
But that's not to say it's not fondly remembered.
The medium found it's way into various Panasonic digital cameras and MIDI keyboards, where
it provided much needed storage capacity, without requiring any more physical space
than a floppy.
An achievement which shouldn't be devalued, and a reason to admire the SuperDisk in a
nostalgic blaze of withered glory.
I'll leave you with the beautiful process of applying a fresh label to a floppy disk.
Mmmmmmm, labels.
Thanks for watching...
Feel free to subscribe, support via.
Patreon, give this video a thumbs up or down.
It all helps.
In any case, thanks for watching and have a great evening! :D