Drive triples the storage and hits twice the speed of old Zip drives, but will CD-RW lovers care? Using a USB 2.0 interface, this external drive offers data rates comparable to a still-theoretical 50X/50X/50X CD-RW drive, according to the company. That means it could write to archive, rewrite, and read at 50X speeds (about 7.5 MB per second). Iomega's USB 2.0 drive sells for $179; 750MB disks sell for about $12.50 each if you buy them in an eight-pack.

In order to squeeze more data onto a disk the same size as Iomega's existing 100MB and 250MB products, engineers worked to improve dramatically the track density of its flexible media, says David Greenhalgh, worldwide product manager, future products.

In addition, the company improved the drive's internal transfer processes, including its chip set, software algorithms, and channel efficiencies. To utilize USB 2.0's faster throughput, the drive also spins the flexible media inside the cartridge considerably faster than the older units did, resulting in the maximum throughput of up to 7.5 MB per second, he says.