Imation

Imation Odyssey (2007 – 2011)

Imation Odyssey 40 GB cartridge (2007)
Imation Odyssey 40 GB cartridge (2007)
Imation Odyssey drive and 40 GB cartridge (2007)

The Odyssey was a hard-disk cartridge system introduced by Imation in 2007. The drive was available as an external USB model, or as an internal drive that fitted into 3.5-inch drive bay.

The cartridges contained a 2.5-inch hard disk drive in a rugged enclosure that could withstand small drops. They ranged in size from 40 GB to 250 GB initially, with a 500 GB cartridge eventually available. The cartridge incorporated electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection to dissipate static charge, and the drive had a soft-load mechanism to minimise shock during loading of the cartridge.

It was aimed at the home office and small business market, and was much faster than tape drives. The system was compatible with PCs and Macs, and was cheaper than similar hard-disk cartridge systems such as RDX QuikStor or Quantum GoVault. Despite this, it seems to have been discontinued in 2011.

Imation Odyssey 40 GB cartridge (2007)
Imation Odyssey 40 GB cartridge (2007)

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DataPlay (2002 – mid 2000s)

DataPlay was an optical disk format for audio and data storage, introduced by DataPlay Inc in 2002.It used a very small 32 mm diameter disc with a capacity of 500 MB enclosed in a protective cartridge (42.1 mm × 33.5 mm × 3.0 mm).

DataPlay was used for portable music playback, and a small number of pre-recorded albums were released.

They were recordable, but only write-once like CD-R.

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SuperDisk (1997 – early 2000s)

SuperDisk (also known as LS-120, and later LS-240) was a high-capacity 3.5-inch floppy disk, introduced by Imation in 1997. Initially it has a capacity of 120 MB, but was later refined by Matsushita to hold 240 MB.

Like the Floptical disk, lasers guided the magnetic read/write head.

It was the same size and was backwards compatible with 720 KB and 1.44 MB 3.5-inch floppy disks, but not with older Macintosh-formatted diskettes.

Iomega’s Zip Drive had also been on the market for several years when it was launched, and there was little interest in the SuperDisk system, especially when prices of CD-R and CD-RW drives and USB flash drives fell, and it was discontinued in the early 2000s.

The SuperDisk LS-120 was briefly used in a couple of Panasonic digital cameras, the Panasonic PalmCam PV-SD4090 and PV-SD5000 of 2000.

Figures

Dimensions: 94 mm × 90 mm × 3.3 mm

Capacity: 120 MB to 240 MB

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