SyQuest
More info
- Creator
- SyQuest Technology
- Released
- 1982
- Type
- Removable disk cartridge
- Successor
- Zip drive (rival)
Removable hard-disk cartridges of the 1980s and 90s — a detachable platter in a plastic shell, a prepress staple until Zip took over.
SyQuest Technology (founded 1982) shipped not floppies but genuine hard-disk platters sealed inside swappable cartridges. A 44 MB or 88 MB cartridge in the 5.25-inch format became standard in prepress and Mac design shops, where jobs went to the printer on a SyQuest. The format offered hard-disk speed with floppy-style portability, but the cartridges were fragile and pricey.
When Iomega's cheaper Zip drive arrived in 1994, SyQuest lost ground fast, managed later formats like the EZFlyer and SparQ, and went bankrupt in 1998. Iomega bought the remains.