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
