Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!virtech!scum
From: scum@virtech.uucp (Steven C. Monroe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: CD ROMs
Message-ID: <1990Dec07.135610.16986@virtech.uucp>
Date: 7 Dec 90 13:56:10 GMT
References: <36584@cup.portal.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Virtual Technologies Inc.
Lines: 55

dbell@cup.portal.com (David J Bell) writes:

>Hey folks!!    What's the concensus regarding CD ROM drives/systems
>for the PC/AT world, or for the Mac side, for that matter?

I'm running a Denon DRD-253 (SCSI drive) on both an AT class machine
and on a Mac SE/30 with no problems.  Well, not at the same time, I change
the cables.  Anyone have any experience sharing devices?  This was a
"special deal" that Microsoft was running with the Programmer's Library
so it came with a Future Domain controller and all of the Microsoft
extensions.  I then bought the Mac device driver from Optical Media
and a separate Apple SCSI cable.

>... offering a BSR drive and $2452 (list) of ROMs for $699. The selection
>of ROMware looks like what I'd want to start with, with a whole lot
>extra. How common is the BSR drive format? Or are they all the same?
>Would I be able to use the same ROMs on a MAC ROM drive?

The formats between the Mac and PCs vary.  The Optical Media driver
will read MAC, High Sierra and the ISO formats.  I know the Microsoft
extensions will not read the MAC format, it will read the High Sierra
format, and I'm not sure about the ISO format.  It's nice to be able
to read some of the DOS data on the Macintosh.  I can pull some of the
code from the magazines on CD-ROM put out by Computer Library.  A big
note is that you can only read the data, and then only if you know the
format.  The retrieval programs and the format for any indexes end up
being greek.  There is also a problem with end-of-line (CR/LF) codes.
If only I could figure out how to get the Mac File Exchanger to work
on the CD-ROM files.  It makes them look like normal mac documents but
each line has a funky looking little box character at the end.  The
CD-ROMs from DAK will only run on a IBM PC compatible, I do wish that
I could obtain just the CDs though.

>Also, I've *never* had a problem buying a product from DAK and
>getting a refund when it didn't work out, BUT: what about
>software entities, like shrink-wrapped CD ROMs? If I find
>the whole shebang don't work like I'd hoped/been led to believe,
>might I be unable to return the disks?

I don't know for sure but the number of floppy disks (and hard disks
too for that matter) required to back up 4-5 600MB CD-ROMs could be
quite time consuming...hmm...let's see... "Yes, I want to order three
thousand 1.2M floppy disks...yes that's correct...I just want to back
up my CD-ROM disks" ;-)

Hope this helps.  I'm quite happy with my setup, well except for
swapping cables - a minor nit.  The 600MB capacity would be more
impressive back in the 20-40MB hard drive days.

>Dave      dbell@cup.portal.com

-- 
Steven C. Monroe           (703)430-9247        Virtual Technologies, Inc.,
uunet!virtech!scum                              46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160
                                                Sterling, VA 22170