When the amount of floor or desk space required by a device is relatively small. The use of tape as a second medium on to which to copy files as a precaution, in case the first medium fails. USB can also handle up to 127 peripherals on a single port. All Macs are equipped with USB, and PCs are increasingly offered with this interface standard. USB ports are expected to completely replace traditional serial and parallel ports.
Zip drive A high-capacity floppy disk drive.
Slightly larger than conventional floppy disks and about twice as thick, Zip disks can hold 100 megabytes of data. Relatively inexpensive and durable, they have become a popular media for backing up hard disks and for transporting large files.