One of the many peripherals I have connected to my computer is a recordable CD (Compact Disc) drive. A regular CD can hold 650 MB of data, or about 74 minutes of music in standard CD-DA (Compact Disc - Digital Audio) format. This amount of storage is an attractive option for removable media. But a recordable CD isn't the only option available to PC users. 

The Iomega Zip (100 MB; 250 MB in newer models, as shown at right) and Jaz drives (1 GB; 2GB in newer models) are popular alternatives. The 100 MB version of the Zip has become nearly ubiquitous, making it a safe choice for storing and exchanging files larger than that which can fit on the increasingly outmoded 1.44 MB floppy disc. The Jaz has not been nearly as popular as the Zip, and it seems to be plagued by hardware errors, such as the dreaded "click of death" sound that owners hate to hear -- a sign that their Jaz drives are ruining their expensive Jaz discs.

There are several similar "super floppies" from vendors other than Iomega of course, such as the Imation LS-120 drive, but none of them are as popular as the Zip nor as widely supported as a regular CD, since just about every computer now includes a CD-ROM drive. With a CD-ROM drive, every user ought be able to read a CD made by another user with a recordable CD drive. That's the theory. In practice, it's not that simple.

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CD-R versus CD-RW

If you want to use a recordable compact disc for purely archival purposes, you can opt for a CD-R (Compact Disc - Recordable) burner. "Burning" is the term used to refer to the act of writing data to a compact disc. CD-R lets you record information onto the disc, but only once -- hence the name "recordable." Once recorded, it can't be changed or erased.

If you want to be able to alter the data on the compact disc, you need to use a CD-RW (Compact Disc - ReWritable) drive. Being able to re-record information on the compact disc many times is a clear advantage over CD-R. Unfortunately, you cannot treat the CD-RW disc just like a regular hard disk drive; special software must be used to (re)write data to a CD-RW disc.For example, the CD-RW unit I have, shown at right, is the Sony Spressa. It ships with software called HotBurn for managing disc-based data. 

The market leader in managing recordable disc-based data is probably Adaptec's "Easy CD Creator." This software has a bundled application called DirectCD that lets you treat your compact disc as a regular disk drive. However, to be recorded on, the disc must first be reformatted (which takes anywhere from 50 to 90 minutes), and to be read it must be read on a computer that supports CD-RW discs or that has the DirectCD software installed. Moreover, the CD-RW drive must support a special burn mode called "packet writing"; most newer drives do, but not all.

I generally prefer the convenience of CD-RW to CD-R, but CD-RW does have a few drawbacks when compared to CD-R.. The first is cost. CD-R discs can be purchased in boxes of 20 or so for about a dollar each; even cheaper if you don't mind storing the CDs on a spindle instead of in the usual jewel case. CD-RW discs typically cost two to four times as much; a box of 10, such as that shown at right, costs about $25.

The second drawback is speed. If you look at the specifications for a CD-RW drive, you'll see odd phrases like "4X/2X/6X". This refers to the speed that the drive can record to a disc the first time (the CD-R speed), the speed that the drive can re-record to the disc for subsequent uses (the CD-RW speed), and the speed that the drive can read data from the disc (the CD-ROM speed), respectively. The most common rewrite speed is 2X, with 4X models now appearing on the market. When compared to a regular hard disk, or even the Zip disk, the CD-RW speed is achingly slow.

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CD-RW + Zip + USB = Headache

Most CD-RW drives are internal IDE models. There are a few others that are SCSI-based, and even a few portable models that rely on the parallel-port to connect to the computer. The SCSI models suffer from the same problems that afflict all SCSI devices. The parallel-port models are convenient, but they are relatively slow, especially when reading data from the disc to the computer. At the moment, the most attractive option for a notebook computer is a USB-based burner.

Unfortunately, connecting several similar devices via USB to the same computer is not without problems. When I try to have both the CD-RW drive and the Zip drive actively connected to my Windows98-based notebook computer, either or both drives eventually give up the ghost and the whole system locks up. I have tried using the same hub, separate USB hubs, and even directly connecting each drive into one of the two root USB ports on the computer. The result is always the same. 

As far as I can tell, this configuration is supposed to work. The kludge I have for now is to always keep the Zip drive connected, and when I want to use the CD-RW drive I disconnect the Zip drive and connect the CD-RW drive. Thank goodness USB supports this type of hot swapping of peripherals, or even this clumsy solution wouldn't work. I have a feeling that the problem is due to the quirky nature of the software driver in the CD-RW drive. When speaking with Sony technical support, I was told to "... avoid doing anything else when burning a CD ... otherwise the drive will hang."

As an aside, I was only speaking with Sony technical support (who were very helpful) when I was trying to listen to audio CDs through the Spressa. Every time I tried to do this (even without the Zip drive connected), the entire computer froze. Eventually the support person figured out what I was trying to do and told me "Well, of course that won't work, sir. That's not what a CD burner is for. It's to burn CDs, not to listen to them." He said this very clearly and very slowly, as if he was speaking to a rather dimwitted user. Well, perhaps I am. I just assumed I could listen to music through the CD-RW drive, since it had an earphone jack and a volume control button on the front and audio-out cables on the rear. Silly me...

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Enter DVD

I now have my system working, perhaps not exactly as designed, but jury rigged and functional. Naturally, there is new technology just coming on the market that will make CD-RW drives seem ridiculously old fashioned. I'm referring to DVD-based recordable devices. (By the way, DVD doesn't officially stand for "Digital Video Disc" or "Digital Versatile Disc." It just stands for "DVD." Don't ask.)

The good news is that DVDs have much higher storage capacity than CDs: they start at 5 GB and go up from there. The bad news is that there are currently several competing standards for recordable DVD, and as yet there is no clear winner. The alternatives sport descriptive acronyms like DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and so on. 

Isn't it nice to see how the industry learns from its past mistakes?

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