Pretty much agree with Stan. I use my computer optical drive for
installing the OS and occasional software (though more often than not
software is downloads now)--and that's about it. Whatever I can't do
over the network/internet I use a thumb drive. I don't tend to watch
DVDs on my computer. Anyway, just boils down to the fact that the
latest/greatest DVD drives dont hold too much appeal to me, not that
they're entirely useless :-)
Scott
On Nov 21, 2008, at 7:48 PM, Stan Zaske wrote:
I didn't mean to imply that optical drives are obsolete, just
rapidly headed that way. There are many folks out there that have
archived their collections and watch them from their disk arrays.
The next time someone tells you about their many Terabyte drive
array you can bet they have a lot of DVD movies on there as well as
other media. Those $60 with free shipping drives that Mr. Boswell
mentioned earlier would make a good bit of media storage with an 8
disk RAID controller card. For those of us that can afford such a
thing which I certainly can't. :-)
DHSinclair wrote:
Stan,
I do get your position. But, I am so not where you are ATM.
In any case, how do you rebuild an OS? I have to use an optical
drive.
Best,
Duncan
At 18:09 11/21/2008 -0600, you wrote:
Optical drives are becoming obsolete with hard drive storage and
thumb drives so inexpensive. Optical drives are also much slower
and with the coming of a National broadband agenda and net
neutrality soon to be pushed heavily by our new administration...
Also, you can convert your DVD collection to iso format and use
Demon Tools Lite to mount it in a virtual optical drive and use
your favorite media app to watch them. AnyDVDHD can also rip
BlueRay to disk for the same purpose.
I bought into HDDVD last year because of the heavier use of DRM
with BlueRay and got burned last February when Hollywood and
Tochiba threw in the towel. There are an increasing number of
BlueRay rentals in my area now but I've been waiting for the price
and compatibility issues to get better. But even BlueRay's days
are numbered if you believe the articles. They say that if BlueRay
wants to succeed it needs to be as cheap as DVD and I don't think
that will happen for quite some time. I really like to go to the
video store and check out the latest rentals but those places are
probably on the way out.
DHSinclair wrote:
Scott,
If you do not use optical drives, what do you use? A wee bit
confused here!
Yes, I have played with JMicron's driver(s). It appears that they
do not work well in w2ksp4. Mybad; completely. I do use my
optical drives.
I have not converted to USB or whatever for basic I/O
yet......... :)
Thanks,
Duncan
At 17:11 11/21/2008 -0500, you wrote:
Sounds like you're pretty much on the right road.
I don't know about you, but I virtually never use my optical
drives
anymore. That's why I don't mind my dvd drive running with the
PATA<- >SATA convertor.
Sheesh seems like just yesterday that 1x/2x CD-ROMs were all the
rage
and what a big difference that 2x made! And those annoying little
caddies? I figure somewhere after 20x it stopped mattering quite
as
much :)
Have you tried installing JMicron's drivers?
Scott
On Nov 21, 2008, at 4:09 PM, DHSinclair wrote:
JB,
To your 1st, I'd tend to agree, my check today looks like ~$25-
$40
for opticals like Samsung/Lite-On........? I now have 5 current
pata opticals (4 AOpen, 1 some generic), they all work, so I'd
like
to continue with them, if at all possible. Unless, any of the
newer
SATA specific opticals offer better performance that my current
crop.
As for pata hard drives, I have 2. Both Seagate 160GB. So far,
one
is running well w/converter. One still has to be converted.
Agreed, I am pinching pennies here. Any/all new hard drives
will be
sata. Any/all new opticals will be sata.
Thank you,
Duncan
At 20:56 11/21/2008 +0000, you wrote:
for $19 or so each for convertors surely you're better off
just...
buying new optical drives that are native SATA?
For that matter, how large are the PATA disks you're planning
to keep
in service?
On 21 Nov 2008, at 20:51, DHSinclair wrote:
OK, I now own 6 Sabrent SBT-SCIDE sata/eide converters. 2
are in
use. 1 is now suspect. 3 remain untested.
I spoke with Sabrent today. They have no technical knowledge of
their own product. Freely admitted that this product is a cheap
knock-off of other "more expensive" products in the pipeline
ATM.
Bummer.
So, what are these other "more expensive" converters? I have
a link
to HyperMicrosystems for $19 each, but it clearly states that
it
only works with hard drives. I am looking for reliable
converters
for both hard drives and cdrom/dvdrom/burner that are pata-
based.
I will test the rest of my stack tonight. Newegg and I will
settle
up next week if necessary.
Thank you,
Duncan
