Ditto was a line of proprietary magnetic tape formats for data storage, introduced by Iomega in 1992. They were based on QIC standards, and different versions of Ditto used either the QIC Minicartridge, QIC-Wide, Travan, or QIC EX form factors. Some Ditto drives could read other QIC cartridges, and larger capacity Ditto drives could read some smaller Ditto cartridges, even if they were different form factors. Some Ditto cartridges used ¼-inch wide tape while others, including Ditto Max and Max Pro cartridges, used 8 mm tape.
They were designed for use as a backup device for personal computers, and originally offered storage of 250 MB compressed with the Iomega Tape 250 drive. The Ditto Max line introduced in 1998 offered up to 7 GB of compressed storage, and the Ditto Max Pro offered up to 10 GB compressed storage. These later versions also offered a Flash!File feature to enable quick access to specific files in a 125 MB space.
Both internal and external versions of the tape drive were offered, with the internal version connected through the floppy drive channel (although an accelerator card, the Ditto Dash was also available) and external drive connected through the parallel port. Both versions were slow compared to disk backup.
Iomega were late to support Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, with Ditto Tools NT not coming out until mid-1997. This may have hampered uptake in the small business market. There was also the issue of limited compatibility between different generations of Ditto tapes.
Iomega discontinued the entire Ditto line in 1999.
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Capacities: 125 MB – 5 GB (uncompressed)