--- aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk wrote: **>> snip <<** > Yes, you are quite right Chuck. > The ESF (Exatron Stringy Floppy) drive, > advertised on the back of most of my issues > of 80 Microcomputing, didn't last long despite > the heavy advertising. > As I understand it, the folks at Exatron hoped > it would become the new standard for storing > data. Unfortunately the 3.5" floppy disk (or > one of similar size) was invented around the > same time and, obviously, became the new > standard. > The ESF was about x10 faster than a cassette > and the floppy was much more than that > (atleast x20?). > As I understand it the ESF's broke down after > a year or so. The thin layer of stuff (i forget > now, some ferrous material) which was coated > onto the erm... mylar (?) started flaking off > rendering the ESF's useless. > I'm sure I read an article on ESF's about 6 > months ago... hense why I know a bit about > them. It may have been in an issue of 80 > Microcomputing. > Regards, > Andrew D. Burton > aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk > Yes, I'm replying to my own message! I did a quick search on google and came up with 300 links (searching for "Exatron Stringy Floppy"). Unfortunately, I was unable to confirm what the ESF's were made of. The sources also state different increase read/write rates over cassette drives. Here are some of the better links (including pics of the unit and ESF): http://www.webweavers.co.nz/system-80/hardware_acces sories.htm http://www.digibarn.com/collections/devices/stringy- floppy/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stringy_Floppy Regards, Andrew D. Burton aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk