🚀 go-pugleaf

In article: <709668410wnr@xabcs.demon.co.uk>  J A F Bradbury 
<Julian@xabcs.demon.co.uk> writes:
> CD-R Probs?
> o You need 650MB /contiguous/ disk space free :)

Not with WinOnCD - you can write a CD on the fly, no need for lots of 
free space.

> o CD-Rs have a nasty habit of poor SCSI disconnect/connect, which when
>   doing concurrent TRs can make a very fast h/d, not quite so fast.
>   ( Try SCSI Bench, h/d alone, then with a CD/PD or CD-R ):
>   Putting a CD-R on it's own i/f solves this.

I use a CD-R on a chain with two hard discs and a CDROM running from an 
Adaptec 2940 with no problems.

> o CD-Rs aren't as robust/long-lived as their pressed variety.

Maybe not, but they are more robust than tapes. Stick to good brand 
names - some of the unbranded ones are well dodgy.

> o Writing them is tedious, a verify pass is a must. 
>   Mistakes are tedious & the cost does mount.

I have never written a bad disk, both on my PC and my Mac. I often don't 
bother verifying backups, depending upon their importance. I use a 
Phillips CDD522 external which has a 2MB buffer which nicely soaks up 
any glitches from the SCSI bus/ Windows. Mistakes are a pain if you 
click "finalise disk" instead of "finalise session".

> o Economically CD-R is a write-once miserly 650MB, with multi-session
>   carrying a ~50MB overhead. One 90m DAT tape: 4000MB rewritable 
@7ukp.

Fair point but how often can you reuse a DAT tape before starting to 
take risks?
> 
> For security, look at PD drives, or the "new" IBM 650MB M.O. drive,
> or the new large and "interestingly priced" M.O. drives.
> 
> The decision does come down to what data is going on the CD-R, how
> often it is accessed or distributed. CD-R *IS* online, DAT isn't :(
> The decision is likely to be greyish :)

Horses for courses.

Advantages of CD-R:

-They can be read on and machine with a CDROM drive - no need to attach 
the writing device.

-They are random access devices. You can use the files directly off the 
CD without having to transfer to HD first.


Regards,
-- 
Alun Webber

-Beware of geeks bearing gifs.