SparQ drive
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The SparQ drive is made by SyQuest Technology and is a removable drive that exists in an internal version with IDE interface and an external version for the parallel port. The cartridge can store 1 GB of data and, much like a hard drive, it contains a solid plate on which the data are stored.
When the SparQ drive was launched, it was primary noticed for its low price. Compared to the Zip drive, a 100 MB disk could cost $22 while a 1 GB SparQ disk could cost $39.
Just a few months after the launch, people started to complain that the drives had quality issues, which caused them to break down. The image loss and warranty obligations of Syquest is meant to be a major cause of the company's bankruptcy.
After the bankrupt Syquest kept its rights to make and sell the drive, and is still sold from the company's website. The price has been raised, compared to when the drive was launched, so it is primarily for businesses that still rely on the drive and people who want to read old SparQ disks.
The SparQ is most noteworthy for a bizarre failure mode which damages SparQ disks in a way that causes them to damage subsequent SparQ drives in which they are placed. Simply put, putting a broken disk in a SparQ drive will cause the drive to break any new disks placed in that drive. These (now broken) disks can break new drives, breaking most of the drives in an office in short order.
