Re: Please help with CD writer questions
I've had a lot of trouble setting up IDE writing systems. I just had one system I was working on at my work, where the customer wanted an IDE cd-rewriter working under NT and Linux. Found out that NT wouldn't use the IDE writer, even after the drivers for SCSI emulation were installed. I did get it to work with 2.1.125 kernel with IDE-SCSI emulation, but I couldn't get either the writer or the reader to read or play audio CDs. I also couldn't get the reader to use IDE and the writer to use SCSI emulation. I ended up swapping it with a SCSI writer, which reads and writes audio. Still can't get the IDE to read audio tracks. Even though the drive says it can handle CD-DA. Also have the reading problem on my own system. Any ideas to fix it? email, please. This list is very spammy for me. --Ian On 27 Nov 1998, Gilbert Laycock wrote: You probably want to have a look at Andy McFadden's CD-Recordable FAQ, which is not Linux oriented, but does have a lot of information about the hardware. It is at http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/ timothy 1. I read (on NetExpress) that the shelf life of CD-R media timothyis only like 5 years. Is this true? Doesn't this suck? And timothythat CD-RW media has a shelf life of 30 years. Does this timothymean I have to get a CD-RW? I think its the other way around CD-R lasts ~25 years, CD-RW ~5 years. But I really don't remember where I read that. Aha. At the end of the FAQ there is the claim that CD-R have an unrecorded shelf life of 5-10 years, and that once recorded the estimated life is 75-100 years depending on whether you are using green or gold blanks. My impression is that most CD writers you can buy now will write both type of CD. timothy 2. What is the deal with the buffer underflow thing? I read timothy(on Computers.com) that you should have a fast SCSI timothyinterface, because if you cant feed the writer data fast timothyenough, the write will die. - Does this mean that all IDE timothyCD-Writers are useless? And what if you do get a SCSI timothyWriter, but are using an IDE hard disk? Wont you still be timothystuck? According to the FAQ above IDE writers are not much of a problem so long as the writer has a reasonable size of buffer. And I suppose it depends how you are going to use it. If you always make an image on a spare partition before writing to the CD, problems are even less likely. And you probably don't want to start writing while your machine is heavily loaded with other processes. I have an IDE CD writer (an HP CD-Writer+, 7200 series, 768K buffer) that has worked without problems for me. But I don't use it heavily. -- Gilbert Laycock email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Maths and Computer Science, http://www.mcs.le.ac.uk/~glaycock Leicester Universityphone: (+44) 116 252 3902 -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] /dev/null
Re: Please help with CD writer questions
Hi, I wanted to get one of these drives for data archival and I had afew questions, i'de be glad for any advice: 2. What is the deal with the buffer underflow thing? I read (on Computers.co m) that you should have a fast SCSI interface, because if you cant feed the writer data fast enough, the write will die. - Does this mean that all IDE CD-Writers are useless? And what if you do get a SCSI Writer, but are using an IDE hard disk? Wont you still be stuck? As I understand it, once the CD starts to write, it must write continuously. If the buffer isn't filled fast enough, then the you get blank spots on the CD and you have yourself another coaster. However, since most CDs write as 2X speed, it is not that difficult to keep bits in the buffer. I use and EIDE CD writer, and it works fine with my dual PPro 150. The howtos recommend that you shut everything down when you write a CD, so as not to hog CPU recources and end up with an empty buffer. I don't do that, and so far, I haven't had a problem, but I do make sure that I'm not doing anything cpu/disk intensive at the same time, ie no starting netscape or web browsing, playing mpgs, etc. I have an EIDE writer on hdc. If I try to supply the CD from hdd, I end up with skips. As long as I use hda or hdb, so that reads come from one EIDE controller and writes to the the other EIDE controller, I haven't had problems. 3. (this might be stupid) Can you use EIDE drives on IDE interfaces? Yes. With older bioses and dos, they only see the first 512K. With Linux, you can see all of the drive, but if you are booting the kernel from it, you have to make sure the kernel is in the first 512K. The best way to do that is to make sure that the kernel is in a partition that does not extend past the 512K boundary. 4. Which one should I get? The main requirements being linux compatability and price. (Since i'm a poor student. :)). At the time that I got mine, the Memorex CRW-1622 was about $100 cheaper than any other CDRW. For convenience sake, get a scsi. To rip audio CD's I have to boot it as and ATAPI/EIDE drive. To write CDs I have to boot it as scsi (via emulation). I've read that in future kernels, EIDE writers will fully supported natively, but that will be in the 3.0 kernels. To save $, go with an EIDE. The HPs seem to be the most popular. As of yet, I don't think the RW part is supported, at least not on EIDE. 5. I have a SCSI card of sorts: One of the Adaptec things that comes with iomega zip drives. Could I plug a CDR into this, or does it suck? Best as I recall, the zip card is a crippled card, and is not good for much other than running the zip drive. Mark [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Please help with CD writer questions
You probably want to have a look at Andy McFadden's CD-Recordable FAQ, which is not Linux oriented, but does have a lot of information about the hardware. It is at http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/ timothy 1. I read (on NetExpress) that the shelf life of CD-R media timothyis only like 5 years. Is this true? Doesn't this suck? And timothythat CD-RW media has a shelf life of 30 years. Does this timothymean I have to get a CD-RW? I think its the other way around CD-R lasts ~25 years, CD-RW ~5 years. But I really don't remember where I read that. Aha. At the end of the FAQ there is the claim that CD-R have an unrecorded shelf life of 5-10 years, and that once recorded the estimated life is 75-100 years depending on whether you are using green or gold blanks. My impression is that most CD writers you can buy now will write both type of CD. timothy 2. What is the deal with the buffer underflow thing? I read timothy(on Computers.com) that you should have a fast SCSI timothyinterface, because if you cant feed the writer data fast timothyenough, the write will die. - Does this mean that all IDE timothyCD-Writers are useless? And what if you do get a SCSI timothyWriter, but are using an IDE hard disk? Wont you still be timothystuck? According to the FAQ above IDE writers are not much of a problem so long as the writer has a reasonable size of buffer. And I suppose it depends how you are going to use it. If you always make an image on a spare partition before writing to the CD, problems are even less likely. And you probably don't want to start writing while your machine is heavily loaded with other processes. I have an IDE CD writer (an HP CD-Writer+, 7200 series, 768K buffer) that has worked without problems for me. But I don't use it heavily. -- Gilbert Laycock email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Maths and Computer Science, http://www.mcs.le.ac.uk/~glaycock Leicester Universityphone: (+44) 116 252 3902
Please help with CD writer questions
Hi, I wanted to get one of these drives for data archival and I had afew questions, i'de be glad for any advice: 1. I read (on NetExpress) that the shelf life of CD-R media is only like 5 years. Is this true? Doesn't this suck? And that CD-RW media has a shelf life of 30 years. Does this mean I have to get a CD-RW? 2. What is the deal with the buffer underflow thing? I read (on Computers.co m) that you should have a fast SCSI interface, because if you cant feed the writer data fast enough, the write will die. - Does this mean that all IDE CD-Writers are useless? And what if you do get a SCSI Writer, but are using an IDE hard disk? Wont you still be stuck? 3. (this might be stupid) Can you use EIDE drives on IDE interfaces? 4. Which one should I get? The main requirements being linux compatability and price. (Since i'm a poor student. :)). 5. I have a SCSI card of sorts: One of the Adaptec things that comes with iomega zip drives. Could I plug a CDR into this, or does it suck? Whew:). Thanks alot in advance for any advice! Timothy -- E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 26-Nov-98 Time: 16:24:51 This message was sent by XFMail. Powered by GNU/Linux 2.0. --
