Brian Sullivan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have been using the Pioneer S201 DVD-R drive with > the cdrecord (pro) software. To date, the drive and > the software have performed flawlessly. I am using the > drive and cdrecord for the long term archival of data > files on my linux servers, I am just making a big ISO > file with mkisofs and burning it with cdrecord. As I > am just using the DVD-R drive for the storage of a > normal linux file system I don't need to be using the > DVD-R Authoring media which is much more expensive > than the DVD-R General media (about $15 a disc > compared to under $10). Since I will be archiving > literally thousands and thousands of discs the cost > savings of switch media is huge. The problem is that > the S201 drive only supports Authoring media. > Pioneer's new DVD-R A03 (~$700) drive supports General > media but this is an ATAPI interface drive, not SCSI > like the S201. So my idea was to try an IDE to SCSI > converter (SCSIDE) on the A03. Has anyone done this > successfully with a drive and cdrecord? Does anyone > see any potential problems with this solution (or have > a different one)?
I see no particular joy to using SCSI for this unless you are out of IDE controllers and slots for Promise or similar supported additional controllers. The IDE burning seems to work nicely, and unless you have a real need to go SCSI you probably would do as well to use ATAPI and the available (and probably cheaper) version of the drive. I burn a lot of backup CDs and after running SCSI for a few years I stopped looking for a reason to avoid ATAPI, because the ATAPI systems worked fine. If you want to run many drives at once, lack ATAPI hardware, or use cheap media and worry a lot about correct error reporting, then SCSI is the way to go. If you just burn a lot of quality media and care enough to check the media after you burn, I would be very surprised to see any more bad results with one bus or the other. For most people there is no difference in the end result, and that's the major issue for most of us. There was a time when burners were made in different models for ATAPI and SCSI; most vendors now have one burner with different interface electronics. And finally, I would not add one more potential problem area to the backup chain. If you had problems you would never know if they might be in the bus adaptor. Go ATAPI or SCSI, but I would not use any relatively exotic hardware in my backup chain. -- -bill davidsen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) "The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the last possible moment - but no longer" -me -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
