Re: cd writers & linux
Paul Miller wrote:
>
> On Mon, 8 Jun 1998, Stephen Carpenter wrote:
>
> > They make permanant pits iinto the disk and can not be erased (well ok...
> > they can be erased...just dip them in some acetone... but they can not
> > be erased AND re-used)
>
> After looking around on the net, I think that is right.
>
Yes. Although you can write multiple sessions to a CDR. If you have space
at the end of a CDR, you can tack on more files later, but you can't overwrite
anything you've written.
> hmmm... I think rewritable discs are magnetic and they can only be read on
> other CD-RW drives or DVD drives.
>
Nope. There's no such thing as a magnetic CDROM/DVD. They use a different
power laser, and require the same on anything that tries to read the CD-RW.
All newer CDROM/DVD will read CD-RW's (they will say they support
multi-read). In fact, I have a sony stereo that will play audio CD-RW's
(although most audio equipment won't play them).
> If the drive has a 1MB or 2MB buffer and is only writing at 2X or 4X, why
> does it matter how fast the interface is? Most drives are 2X, which is
> something like 300KB/s.. My motherboard supports up to 20MB/s on both of
> its IDE channels. So even if the drive is on a shared channel, it'll
> still be able to continously write at 300KB/s, right?
>
Speed is not an issue, reliability is. SCSI is MUCH more reliable that
IDE. I tried to copy a scratched CD on an IDE CDROM once. It got to a
damaged file, puked & died on the spot. I tried copying it from a SCSI CDROM,
and it took about 30 seconds while it retried, but it copied the file and
continued on.
IDE does not deal well with errors during reading or writing. IDE devices
tend to just give up, while SCSI does the best it can to continue. SCSI also
uses less CPU time than even UDMA. This isn't a big deal if you are
exclusively using your machine as a burner, but I've done compiles, used
netscape, etc. while burning CDs under linux. I would not even think of doing
that with an IDE burner.
I'm not saying you shouldn't get an IDE burner. It will probably work OK
and will cost much less, but SCSI is a better option if you can afford it.
Kerry
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