Low-Cost High-Performance Removable Storage
Here are published technical specs for some common removable hard-disk drives. I cannot
guarantee that this table is accurate in every respect, so please consult the manufacturer's
Web site or another reliable source if you need to be sure of any information.
| Interface |
Drive |
Avg. seek time |
Sustained data transfer rate |
Disk capacities |
| Parallel |
SyQuest EZFlyer |
13.5 ms |
up to 1.25 MB/s |
135, 230 MB |
| Avatar Shark |
< 12 ms |
up to 1.25 MB/s |
250 MB |
| SyQuest SparQ |
12 ms |
approx. 0.9 MB/s |
1008 MB |
| Castlewood Orb |
10 ms read, 12 ms write |
up to 2 MB/s |
2.2 GB |
| Eagle Nest IDE (proprietary) |
Exabyte Eagle Nest HD |
14 ms |
1 MB/s |
1.4 GB |
| PCMCIA (PC Card) |
Avatar Shark |
< 12 ms |
up to 2 MB/s |
250 MB |
| SCSI |
SyQuest SQ3105 |
14.5 ms |
.94 to 1.4 MB/s |
105 MB |
| SyQuest EZ135 |
13.5 ms |
up to 2.4 MB/s |
135 MB |
| SyQuest EZFlyer |
13.5 ms |
1.4 to 2.4 MB/s |
135, 230 MB |
| SyQuest SQ3270 |
13.5 ms |
1.4 to 2.4 MB/s |
105, 270 MB |
| CompactFlash+ Type II |
IBM microdrive |
15 ms |
1.8 to 3.0 MB/s |
170, 340 MB |
| Fast SCSI |
Nomai 540 |
10 ms |
up to 5.3 MB/s |
270, 540 MB |
| Nomai 750.c |
10 ms |
up to 3.8 MB/s |
135, 270, 540, 750 MB |
| Iomega Jaz 1GB |
10 ms read, 12 ms write |
3.41 to 6.62 MB/s |
1070 MB |
| SyQuest SyJet |
12 ms |
3.7 to 6.9 MB/s (write verify off) |
1500 MB |
| PIO Mode 4 (Enhanced IDE) |
SyQuest EZFlyer |
13.5 ms |
1.4 to 2.4 MB/s |
135, 230 MB |
| SyQuest SparQ |
12 ms |
3.7 to 6.9 MB/s |
1008 MB |
| SyQuest SyJet |
12 ms |
3.7 to 6.9 MB/s (write verify off) |
1500 MB |
| Castlewood Orb |
10 ms read, 12 ms write |
up to 12.2 MB/s |
2.2 GB |
| Ultra SCSI |
Iomega Jaz 2GB |
10 ms read, 12 ms write |
4.9 to 8.7 MB/s |
1070, 2002 MB |
| Castlewood Orb |
10 ms read, 12 ms write |
up to 12.2 MB/s |
2.2 GB |