One DeKalb business is looking to improve the bulky size and limited accessibility most CD-RW drives, drives capable of re-recording on compact discs, now offer.

Microsolutions, 132 W. Lincoln Highway, says it tops the charts in parallel-port-attach mass storage and now is shipping its new Bantam Backpack CD-RW drive at a suggested retail price under $250.

The drive offers an extremely portable USB 2.0 triple play CD re-writer with three connection capabilities and SpeedyCD software. The drive stands 10- inch high, 6 inches wide and 8.8- inches deep, and weighs only 20 ounces. It comes with a PC card, Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and parallel port connections which give it the capability to have a printer run through it.

“What is unique is we have all three interfaces in one box,” said Debbie Armstrong, a representative for Microsolutions. “We’re the only people that can offer all three because of our patent on the small printer port pass-through.”

The drives can record at 16 times standard playback time, can re-record 10 times playback time and can read at 24 times. Its plug and play capability makes it the only drive that works “out-of-box” with both desktop and pentium-based notebooks. Also, for the first time, Microsolutions is offering user-friendly software designed for the backpack series. The parallel port also allows the drive to work with disk imaging and disaster recovery software for DOS, and can be used with other software like Windows, which doesn’t support USB. The USB 2.0 port is 40 times faster than the original USB port and will be offered in most new computers shipped in the second half of 2002.

The company also offers trial versions of CD labeling and PC backup software produced by Stomp Inc.

“We manufacture electronics and smarts in DeKalb and also offer repair services, but we do not sell PCs,” Armstrong said. “Our products can be purchased at Best Buy, Comp U.S.A. and other major retail outlets, as well as by mail order.”

Microsolutions has serviced the community for 20 years and its products can be viewed at www.micro-solutions.com.