On Sat, 15 Dec 2001, Tom Rauschenbach wrote: > Meanwhile, does anyone have a positive recommendation for a CD burner (IDE > please) so I can start doing some reliable backups ? Any explanation of CDR > vs. CDRW or what ever other things to consider (Like DVD compatibility would > be appreciated.
At the risk of oversimplification, if not outright error, here goes: 1. CD-R disc - Can be written on but not erased, all sales are final. :) 2. CD-R/W disc - Can be written to, can also be erased (but only by completely wiping it out, not on a file-by-file basis like a hard drive). Some regular CD-ROM drives can have trouble reading from these, YMMV. 3. CD-R Drive - Can read all CDs but not DVDs, can write to CD-Rs only. 4. CD-R Drives that are Multi-Session Capable - Can read all CDs but not DVDs, can write to CD-Rs only, can tack more on to a not-yet-full CD-R (but this is, if I understand it correctly, only as a separate "image" on the CD-R, akin to making a new partition on a HD out of free space). 5. CD-R/W Drive - Can read all CDs but not DVDs, can write to CD-Rs and CD-R/Ws, can erase CD-R/Ws (in their entirety only). Most if not all are multi-session capable, AFAIK. 6. DVD-ROM - Can read all CDs and DVDs; these must be used to read DVDs. 7. DVD Writers - If these even exist yet, I know nothing about them. :) Any errors in the above will, of course, be picked apart mercilessly by the rest of the group, as well they should be. Have at it, kids. :) Some resources: http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO.html http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/CDROM-HOWTO/index.html http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/DVD-HOWTO.html For what it's worth, a friend and I just this week popped open a HP 7500e CD-R/W (which is an external, connects-trough-the-parallel-port device), and removed the actual drive itself (which turned out to be a perfectly normal IDE drive) and popped it into his dual-cpu Mandrake 8.1 system (where it now runs nicely). Naturally, we're now wondering if we can just stick a regular HD where the CD-R/W used to be, and thereby cobble together a parallel-port HD (read: movable from system to system), and if we could somehow get the thing to work - any thoughts, people? HTH! -- Bill Mullen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dec 15, 2001 ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
