[EMAIL PROTECTED] asked: << What is everyone using to burn CD's on their s900's and what software. I am ready to take the plunge. >>
I'm using a SONY ATAPI 32x CDRW (model #CRX185E1) mated to a VST Ultratek ATA/PCI card in my s900. It works -- after some fiddling and fooling around. My hardware: - VST Ultratek ATA/66 PCI card - IBM 40g ATA/66 drive attached to one channel of Ultratek - Sony CRX185E1 32x10x40x CD-RW on other channel of Ultratek, set as "master" - Sony CDU611-25 ATAPI CD-ROM (Apple-labeled) set as "slave" (same channel as CDRW). This unit is a replacement for the original UMAX Matushita 24x SCSI CD-ROM, which wouldn't even do audio extraction. CD burning software used: - Adaptec Toast Standard 4.1.3 (Yamaha OEM) - Adaptec Toast Deluxe 4.1.3 - Roxio Toast Titanium 5.0.2 OS's used: - 8.1 - 8.6 - 9.1 (occassionally) I was previously using an old ProMax "TurboMax" ATA/33 card in the s900 in combination with an IBM 40gig ATA drive. However, I found that the TurboMax wouldn't support ATAPI CDRW's (its support for anything other than fixed hard drives is extremely limited). Granted, the TurboMax was the first of its kind in the Mac market, and I expected that. After some researching at "Deal-Mac" and "xlr8yourmac.com", I found only two of the available ATA/PCI cards were reported to be "ATAPI-friendly": The Sonnet Tempo ATA/100 and the VST "Ultratek". OWC had the VST for $49, so I ordered one to replace the TurboMax. The CDRW drive goes in easily. I mounted mine in the 2nd bay "down" (under the existing CD-ROM). I also replaced the factory-installed Matsushita CD-ROM with an Apple-labeled ATAPI 24x SONY CD-ROM I picked up on ebay for cheap. But getting the two of them to work together in certain situations can be difficult. It has been suggested that you avoid connecting a fixed ATA hard drive and an ATAPI CDRW to the same channel on the ATA/PCI card, as the slower ATAPI device could slow down the hard drive. SPECIAL NOTE: If you need to mount 2 ATAPI or ATA drives close together in the case, chances are you'll find that the typical IDE master/slave ribbon cable isn't going to work. For some reason, most of them have the "slave" (middle) connector right at the "midpoint" of the cable, equally spaced between the ends. This will cause problems when your drives are physically close together in the case, yet distanced from the IDE connector on the ATA/PCI card or on the motherboard itself. In the s900, the cable would reach from the connector on the ATA card to either drive -- BUT -- it wouldn't reach BOTH drives at once, because the middle connector is in the wrong location. I solved this problem by picking up one of the new "round" IDE connecting cables, which is much more intelligently designed with the master/slave connectors grouped together at one end of the cable. You can find out more info at <http://www.startech.com> (search for item "IDE100RND24"). I picked one of these up from zones.com for about $7 plus shipping. A great improvement. SOFTWARE ISSUES: This is where it gets sticky, particularly with driver extensions. Interestingly, none of the "3rd-party" CD driver extensions I've tried support an ATAPI CD connected through an ATA/PCI card. This includes CD-ROM Toolkit, CD-ROM SpeedTools (Intech), and the CharisMac driver. OS8.1: You can use an UNmodified Apple CD driver extension to control an ATAPI CD-ROM mated to the PCI card. I had good luck with Apple CD/DVD extension 1.2.2. For the CDRW, I use the "Toast Reader" extension. In order to get it to work without conflicting with any other CD-related extensions, I renamed it by putting a "space character" at the beginning of the name, so that it loads early in the boot process. With OS8.1, you can't use "Toast Titanium", which works only with 8.6 and later. You _can_ use Toast Deluxe version 4.x.x, but you'll have to look for a used copy somewhere (I picked one up on ebay for around $20). You can also use "Toast Standard", version 4, which can be found for $16 from "buycheapsoftware.com" <G>. Be aware that the Standard version of Toast supports only the following CD burning formats: - Mac format (files & folders) - Audio CD format - CD duplication Also, if you want printed documentation, be aware that you only get it with Toast Deluxe or Titanium. The "Standard" version doesn't include a printed manual. You can, however, download a "pdf format" manual for the Standard version from Roxio's web site. OS 8.6 (and perhaps 9.1 as well): You can use the most recent version of Toast, which is version 5.x "Titanium". HOWEVER, Toast Ti seems to have driver-related problems when used in combination with ANY other CD-related driver extensions (such as the Apple CD/DVD extension I was using to control my ATAPI CD-ROM). The ONLY way I could get Toast Ti to run without locking up during a burn was to use ONLY the Toast Reader extension, renamed with the space character at the beginning. Having done this, Toast Ti runs beautifully, BUT, I cannot use my ATAPI CD-ROM because the Toast Reader extension doesn't seem to recognize it, and no other CD-related extensions (which _would_ recognize it) can be running. Oh, well... This may or may not be a problem if you have your factory-installed CD-ROM in place (I have not tested in this configuration to find out). I've run into some problems with Toast Audio Extractor version 1.1. TAE seems to work properly ONLY when the ATAPI CD device you're using is set to the "master" position. When trying to use TAE with an ATAPI CD set as "slave", you will get "jumbled" track information, that appears like this: Track 7 02:55 Track 8 01:57 Track 9 -3:-54 Track 10 02:58 Obviously, Track 9 is jumbled or misinterpreted. This may be due to some kind of driver conflict -- Toast Audio Extractor is unable to correctly interpret the "presence" of TWO CD's through the ATAPI/PCI/SCSI conversion, and then distinguish between them. BOOTABILITY: I can't boot from either the CD-RW or the CD-ROM. When powered up, the access lights on the drive will come on and the CD will spin (as if the Mac is "looking" to the drive, waiting for it to respond by "feeding" an on-disk driver back to the Mac), but then... nothing. It's as if all the various on-disk CD drivers that are included on an Apple boot CD aren't sufficient - the Mac still can't "find the right driver", or perhaps its attempting to load the _wrong_ one. Perhaps the Mac "finds" a driver it "thinks" will be the proper one to load, then loads it, and then chokes after realizing the driver that has been loaded is the incorrect one. I have come to the conclusion that -- at least at this point in ATA/PCI card development for the Mac -- that it is _IMPOSSIBLE_ to boot up from an ATAPI CD-ROM or CDRW connected through an ATA card. Although the firmware on the cards currently sold supports booting from fixed hard drives, the requisite code that would support booting from an ATAPI CD just isn't there. Whether it would be possible to add the code (through a firmware update), I can't say. But I can report that I am unable to boot from either my CDRW, _or_ from my genuine Apple-labeled ATAPI CD-ROM drive. So ... if you wish to retain some kind of "bootability" via CD's, you had better keep your factory-installed SCSI CD-ROM in place. OR... pick up an Apple-labeled _SCSI_ CD-ROM on ebay... I hope this has provided enough info about things to watch out for, for anyone else out there thinking of "going ATAPI" on an s900 or j700... - John -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | SPECIAL SM LIST PRICES - 24x Bootable SCSI CDROM $39.99, Umax Processors $19.99 PowerSupplies from C500/C600 $49.99 J700/S900 $79.99 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
