By Kelly Lu - September 9, 2001

Infobox

What? ED1016 Product Page Who? Global Channel Solutions, Inc. Home Page How much? $59 USD

The floppy disk; you gotta love it! You know those supposedly "floppy" pieces of plastic that can hold a miraculous 1.44MB of data and can transfer up to a speedy 50KB per second. Yep, those things are great.

Sure.

The computer industry has been spending years trying to find a way to just get the floppy disk drive out of the common computer. So far, though, we've had little luck in finding a viable alternative. Sure, we've had the ZIP drives and the "super" floppy drives, but none has gathered much wide-acceptance, which meant that they could only be used on the, somewhat limited, number of computers that do support them. The CD-RW drive is the closest floppy alternative that I can think of at this moment, allowing users to copy data onto a CD-R or CD-RW disc and which can be read on virtually any CD-ROM drive--but not written to, thus, still not making it the ideal floppy-replacement product.

Many users need to be able to take their data on the road and be able to access, alter and delete that data on almost any computer they use--and not just 1.44MB of it. There is a product on the market that allows this type of functionality: EasyDisk. It utilizes something that almost all modern computers have (or should have): a USB port.

Available in flavours with 16MB of storage space, which is still plenty for storage of personal documents or even some MP3 files, to a quarter of a gigabyte, EasyDisk is a very small, light and innovative product that seems to have a lot of potential. By using a computer's USB port, it eliminates the need for a specific disk drive, thus, enabling instant, wide-spread utilization on already-installed hardware. That is the marvel behind EasyDisk.

One other plus lies in the EasyDisk's solid-state memory. Unlike hard drives and CD-ROM drives, which use moving parts, the EasyDisk's solid-state memory won't skip or damage from shakes and bumps--at a reasonable amount, of course. This makes it a very good device for carrying around in a pocket, for example.

Specifications
The specifications really explain for themselves. Global Channel Solutions, the company behind EasyDisk in North America, makes many versions of the EasyDisk, each differing only in their storage capacities--the maximum being 256MB, which should be enough for anyone.

	EasyDisk
Model:	ED1016/ED1032/ED1064/ED1128/ED1256/ED1512
Capacity:	16MB/32MB/64MB/128MB/256MB/512MB
Hardware:	IBM PC or Compatible PC or Notebook with USB interface
Operating System:	Windows 98/SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Drivers:	Only Windows 98/SE needs the EasyDisk driver.
Power Supply:	No external power supply, USB power supply (4.5V to 5.5V)
USB Host Interface:	Universal Serial Bus 1.0/1.1 (USB 1.0/1.1)
Operating current:	<50mA
Suspend current:	<300uA
Data retention:	Over 10 years
LED Indicator Light:	Light on: Connected and working, Flashing: reading and writing data
Reading speed:	950KB/S (3MB/S with Windows cache)
Writing speed:	600KB/S (2MB/S with Windows cache)
Dimensions	LxWxH: 81mm x 23mm x 12.5mm
Weight	15g approximate

I am reviewing a 16MB version of the EasyDisk.

Pricing
When it comes to something like the EasyDisk, it's important to look at the price. Fortunately, Global Channel Solutions is selling this product at some very competitive prices; take a look:

While at capacities of less than 64/128MB, the price of the EasyDisk is quite within reach for most people. At 256MB, though, the price of $400 USD seems to be a little steep especially when a 128MB version costs less than half of that. Still, for users who need 256MB, the option is still there.

On to: First Impressions