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Re: CD-RW as a removable "floppy"



According to Cage,
> William Ballard wrote:
> >On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 04:44:51PM -0600, Bill Day wrote:
> >
> >>I was wondering what the lists advice would be for using a cd-rw as a 
> >>removeable storage disc?  I am running Debian sarge witha  2.4.27 kernel 
> >>and ked 3.3.2
> >>
> >>As always, thanks in advance.
> >
> >
> >I have never used packet writing and always use mkisofs and cdrecord.
> >It is far smarter to get a 1GB flash drive to use as a "removable 
> >floppy."
> >
> >
> 
> The problem with using CDRW for a removable storage device is that it 
> can only be re written to about 15 times. You'll notice after some time 
> that the edges of the silver media will start to flake off. I had this 
> happen to me and my father had the same thing. What will happen is the 
> edge will flake off. This is where the disk volume is written. And when 
> this is corrupted it will render the disc useless. You might be able to 
> read what was already written but it won't write anymore. I had one that 
>  got so bad that it wouldn't even read. I wish I had teh original 
> magazine article I read about this in. But when I read it and inspected 
> my cdrw media it was on the money. For the price it's easier to just get 
> cdr's and use them. Or if you definitely need a removable media you're 
> going to be transferring with continuously definitely look into flash 
> drive or compact flash card with card reader. The second will come in 
> handy with digital cameras also. Or like I do. I have all my computers, 
> 2 desktops, a laptop and a pda, networked together with a hub. I haven't 
> needed to use any transfer media in ages.

That's pretty bad.  CDRW is supposed to take 1000 passes.
But DVD-RAM and various forms of Flash are supposed to take
100000 or 1000000 cycles.  So I concur that a USB flash is a
better modern-day flash replacement.  If you go with DVD-RAM
you'll have to get new drives everywhere but is prevalent
except in quite old machines.  If your machines don't have
USB or have just USB1.1 it's worth getting a PCI USB or PCMCIA-USB 
to get firewire-class transfer rates.



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