Micro Solutions' Backpack Triple Play USB 2.0 CD-RW

If you're looking for a device that you can use to archive data as well as performing your ritual daily backup, CD burners are still just about the cheapest way to go. And, if you have numerous computers cluttering your hovel, the added price of an external burner is pretty much offset by avoiding populating all of your machines with their own internal backup/archiving device. Micro Solutions just unveiled a new traveling CD burner called the Backpack Triple Play USB 2.0 CD-rewriter. The 32x10x40x drive includes USB 2.0, parallel, and PC Card connection options in a single unit. According to Micro Solutions, one of the benefits of including a parallel port is that it works with disaster recovery and disk imaging software in DOS, and it can be used with Windows 95, NT 4 and DOS. When a Backpack CD-rewriter is connected to your PC's parallel port, a printer-pass-through port lets you plug your printer into the Gadget so that you don't need more than one parallel port. The Backpack Triple Play USB 2.0 drive includes software for creating data and music CDs, along with UDF software that lets you write to a CD-RW or CD-R using drive letter access from within Windows. The 32x10x40x Backpack Triple Play USB 2.0 CD-rewriter has an MSRP of $229 and will be shipping later this month.