Magneto-optical
drives are somewhat of a
dying breed. They're a highly
efficient form of
removable storage media, providing the easy re-writability of
magnetic storage, and the reliability of the
compact disc. Magneto optical disks are plastic disks with magnetic
dipoles fused into them. To write to the
disk, a
laser is first used to
melt the plastic surrounding the
dipole, allowing it to move freely, then a
magnet is used to
reposition it, much like in regular
hard drives. The disk is then read in the exact same manner as a regular
hard drive.
Fusing the dipole in
plastic provides greater
data protection...you can wave a
magnet near a magneto-optical disk, but it wont affect the
data on it.
Although magneto-optical drives never caught on like the Iomega Zip drive, they surpass it in many areas. MO disks can hold more than 3 times the data of a single Zip disk. MO media is rated for 30 years or more, is not susceptible to head crashes, and does not wear out like magnetic tape.
MO technology is currently used in many jukebox-style archiving setups because of its high reliability, and is also used in Sony MiniDisc players.