Here are a few short lines on the Floptical and Magneto-optical drives hook up that I use. First, you must understand the difference between the Floptical and the Magneto-optical drives. They are quite different. The Floptical drive is an optical storage device that utilizes the popular 3.5" half height drive size. In its optical mode it will format the special optical disks to 20.88MB (25MB unformatted). The average access time for these devices run from 70 milliseconds to 120 milliseconds, or about two to four times faster than a 1.44MB floppy. Making them much faster than standard floppies, but, slower than any of the newer hard drives on the market, which usually run from 11 to 28 milliseconds. Externally, the 'optical-floppies', look just like the 3.5" floppies you use everyday. The name 'Floptical' may suggest to you that the data is stored in optical form, it's not. The device stores data in magnetic form, it uses the optical 'tracks' on the disk to align the magnetic heads. Because of the greater precision of the magnetic heads, many more tracks and sectors can be put on the floppy. It's that simple. The Floptical drive has another advantage, it has the ability to use (format, read, write) both 1.44MB and 720K floppy disks. This has many advantages over other forms of hard drives. One of the most important for Atari users is that you can have a hard drive and floppy drive using only one drive bay, or slot. For Atari owners that have a built in floppy but don't own the Mega Ste or TT, can now have an internal 20MB hard drive and high density floppy, without adding external boxes and cables. This device is currently sold for the IBM in an internal kit, including an 8-bit (no relation to 800's) SCSI adaptor that you don't need and one floptical disk for $495 (list price). It you shop around you should be able to find a bare drive with one floptical disk for under $400 (street price). Try Computer Shopper to find a place with the best price. As the device is already SCSI, it makes life easier for us Atari owners. I have not been able to use the 1.44MB or 720K floppy disk with the one I have yet. The 20MB floptical part of the drive works fine though. I understand that some programmers are currently working on writing the software needed to use the standard floppy capability of the drive as I write this. The other device that I have tested recently is the Most RMD-5100S 3.5" Optical Rewritable Drive. This drive uses a special 3.5" optical disk that looks very similar to the 3.5" floppy, but is vastly different. This device, unlike the above floptical drive, is a true optical drive. It has the ability to store 121MB in optical format, is erasable, and faster than most CD-ROM's currently on the market The drive mechanisum itself is about one and a half times the thickness of a standard half height floppy drive (three quarters height?). It has an average access time of 47 milliseconds, which is faster than most ROM type drives, but still slower than todays 'normal' hard drives. These devices are also SCSI, and can therefore be used with any Atari. The price for the bare drive is under $1800 (street) and ease disk will run you about $75. Although the price of the drive itself is quite high (the prices should start coming down soon), in the long run it could save you money. Consider the $75 for 121MB per disk compared to the $75 for 44MB Syquest removeable disks. This device does not support standard 3.5" floppy disks as the Floptical above. Therefore, could not be used internally. Again, this device is available through companies in Computer Shopper. Make sure to call for availability and price as they are always changing. In closing I hope that I have been able to answer most of your questions about these two devices. If there's still something you need to know please feel free to ask (in Mail or Forum)......JLB(ARAGONIA)