On Wed, 14 May 2003 13:04:35 +0100 expatriate wrote:

Hello After the deafening silence I got asking if anyone would recommend "trouble-free" internal DVDRW/CDRW unit, I might ask about a "mostly trouble-free" device. Is it too early to go get one of these? Should I consider just a CDRW and wait a few months?

What do you want to do with it? If you just want to use it for reliable backups, consider a DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM drives will read just about any kind of cd or dvd, and will write to dvd-ram blanks, which are reliably rewritable over 100,000 times. They are more reliable than CD rewritables. Plus the dvd-rams are just like a hard drive, you format them with ext2 and write,read, and erase files just like a harddrive. The DVD-RW's are mostly 1-pass sequential write (like the cdr's), and you need to mess with iso-like filesystems to write them. (but DVD-RW's are more compatible with movies and other multi-media stuff, and between different machines). You won't be able to read a dvd-ram with a plain dvd player; although I have read there is a new standard evolving which encompasses all dvd types. So it really depends on what your objective is. I've had good luck with these toshibas, but you can find good deals on them on ebay too. http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SD-W2002 -- use Perl; #powerful programmable prestidigitation

I use and suggest Yamaha SCSI CD-RW drives. I've found their perfomance to be fast and reliable. When using high quality media (verbatium and memorex) I start a burn and move on to other tasks knowing that it will complete as planned without problems. Use of inferior media may save $$ but adds headaches. The only "coaster" I've made on Linux in the past three years was due to a power failure. Sure it may be a bit more exspensive for the drive but it's more than paid for itself. Bought the drive in 1998 and it's still going strong now. Just my two cents... Pagan On Wednesday 14 May 2003 07:04, expatriate wrote:

Hello After the deafening silence I got asking if anyone would recommend "trouble-free" internal DVDRW/CDRW unit, I might ask about a "mostly trouble-free" device. Is it too early to go get one of these? Should I consider just a CDRW and wait a few months? TIA