Advice needed; CDRW for old system w/ win95

[Marge]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum and a total CDRW newbie.

I have a Dell XPS P133c - 512 pipeline burst cache, 4GIG HD (max the box will take) running Windows 95 - will have 128MB RAM once I install the new cards; currently it's 80MB.

I have a 6X-IDE CD drive and a tape back up drive that came with the system. The tape drive is so old that I can't find software that will see it and that is Y2K compliant (which the original software was not), so am not able to back up my computer. I've been stuck in a revolving door of tech support trying to solve this issue off and on for a long time.

Was advised today by STOMP sales that I would be better off getting a CDRW drive instead of mucking around with a new older tape drive that could get unsupported any time. The really new drives far exceed my box's capacity and don't make sense for it.

Is there a CDRW drive out there that will work with my system?

I don't want to upgrade the OS on this system as I've got everything tweaked just the way I like it. Is there software for burning CDs that will work with Win95?

I am interested in storing files (text and image) and using the drive to back up my system. Am not interested in audio or video.

If there is a CDRW drive that will work, is there an advantage in keeping my existing CD drive and using the tape drive slot for the CDRW drive? That tape drive is pretty useless right now, tho' it still runs.

Appreciate any help and advice you all can give; I am running around in circles here on this issue.

[craiger]

Buslink has a new 52x24x52x drive out and it has a rebate. This drive takes a Pentium 166 and is designed for Windows 95.

http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=111 ... 1&scat=514

[jase]

Your machine is pretty slow. I would personally save my money and go for a slower CDRW machine, some old stock from somewhere. For example I've seen some old Philips 8x CD writers going here in the UK for next to nothing. I've suggested one to a friend of mine because he only writes a couple of CDRs a week. The difference in speed (10 minutes vs 3 minutes a CD isn't going to amount to very much in the grand scheme of things for him).

A slow machine will generally struggle above 8x or 12x so it is pointless buying anything expensive. Let us know where you are, or go around your local sites and pick the cheapest 8x or above CD writer you can find and come back to us, and we'll tell you if that was a decent model or not.

[Marge]

Thank you, Jase. I'm in the US. That makes sense; my box does not need to struggle any more than it already does

I will do some searching for 8x and 12x and report my findings back so that you can tell me which would be the best. I take it that they will work with win95?

craiger - thanks to you, too, but my bus is 133 and I don't think something designed for 166 would do well on it?

[Action Jackson]

There is something else to consider Marge.

If you do buy say the "latest and greatest" CDRW that your current system can support, then if you ever decide to upgrade or buy a new system in the near future, you can transfer that new drive over.

But if you are looking for an older CDRW, then perhaps something in the 24/10/40 range? They'll offer decent performance, won't cost too much and the bufferunderrun protections back then worked very well.

What does anyone else think?

[cfitz]

I agree. I was about to say something along the same lines. There are a number of reasons to avoid the older drives:

1. As Action stated, if you buy an old drive you have limited its performance to that of your existing system, thus making it unsuitable for transfer to a new system (if that is in the cards).

2. You are going to have a hard time finding internal 8x, 12x, 16x or potentially even 24x drives for sale in typical big-box retail outlets in the U.S. - they just aren't sold anymore.

3. Even if you do find one of these older drives, you will likely pay more for it than a new drive on sale. Strange, but please believe me, true. The key being to find a good drive on sale.

4. Your slow system increases the chances of buffer underrun, meaning you need a drive with good protection against buffer underrun. The older the drive (I'm thinking specifically the 8x drives and some of the 12x and maybe even 16x drives), the more likely it does not include anti-buffer underrun technology. What does this mean to you, Marge? If you get a drive without buffer underrun protection (look for features called BURN-Proof, JustLink, ExacLink, SMART-BURN, SAFE-BURN etc. ) a temporary slow-down in your computer while burning a disc may result in the disc being ruined - unreadable and suitable only for the trash can. With anti-buffer underrun technology you are protected and don't need to worry about burning unreadable "coasters".

5. Even if your system can't support higher-speed burning (and it might, to a degree, depending on which version of 95 you have and whether or not it has DMA already installed), the newer drives can still burn at slower speeds. For example, the drive that craiger described can burn at speeds as slow as 16x, 12x, 8x and even 4x.

If I were you I would look around as Jase suggested and report your findings to us, but I wouldn't buy anything just yet. To me, the CD-RW sales this week aren't as compelling as those of some recent weeks. There is a good chance that next week's sales will be better.

And by the way, I wouldn't worry about your 133 vs. the 166 listed in the requirements of the drive suggested by craiger. That difference will slow down your burns if your computer is forced to use PIO data transfer mode, but it shouldn't stop you. Actually, I doubt you will find any drive for sale that has lower requirements.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

look for features called JustLink, ExacLink, SMART-BURN, SAFE-BURN etc.

hey, cfitz, you missed the mother of them all:
BURN-Proof !

[cfitz]

hey, cfitz, you missed the mother of them all:
BURN-Proof !

True, true. It was late, I knew I was missing one, I wanted to list at least four examples, but all I could come up with was Yamaha's SAFE-BURN. I've edited the post to include BURN-Proof (even put it first ).

cfitz

[jase]

Yes. These are all very good points. The situation is slightly different in the US to a lot of countries because you seem to have a LOT of companies competing with each other there and so the competition can give rise to some major bargains on newer kit. The reason I mentioned the Philips 8x is because a local store is doing them here for only around $20!

Anyways, yes, BURNProof or similar would be a very useful feature for you. However, a word of warning. I connected a 16x drive to a P233 HP Vectra, and couldn't get any more than 4x out of it reliably when copying direct from another CDROM drive. The reason being that the FX chipset couldn't handle more than 14x reading speed, so when it was reading and writing at the same time it was falling just short of working at 8x. I'm not saying your PC will be as bad but it is a possibility unfortunately.

Whatever drive you get, try to make sure it will go down to 4x if you need it to. If the difference in price between a faster drive and a slower one is only quite small then go for the faster one though -- I have seen BTC 40x drives going for around $40 without rebate so you can get bargains for certain.

But I do still think you'd be better off with a slightly slower (16x/24x/32x) but higher-quality writer for best results.

[cfitz]

Whatever drive you get, try to make sure it will go down to 4x if you need it to.

Agreed.

But I do still think you'd be better off with a slightly slower (16x/24x/32x) but higher-quality writer for best results.

In my view the only reasons for Marge to go to for a lower speed drive would be if she could find one at a super-bargain price (that still has buffer underrun protection) or can find one that writes as slow as 2x or even (shudder) 1x (again, with underrun protection), just as an insurance policy. I don't think that should be necessary though. I'm pretty sure her machine will be able to handle 4x, there is a reasonable chance it will do 8x recording, and maybe even 16x if she does have DMA. The example Jase gave was for an on-the-fly copy from CD-ROM to CD-RW, but this isn't something Marge is planning to do. She said she just wants the CD-RW to back up her hard disk.

By the way, buying a drive with a slower top speed does not guarantee a slower bottom speed. For example, according to Ian's reviews, the 32x LiteOn LTR-32123S has a minimum write speed of 8x, while the 40x LTR-40125S and 48x LTR-48125W both have minimum write speeds of 4x.

Of course, if Marge is really interested I have an old Memorex CRW-1622 2x2x6 CD-RW drive that lists its requirements as:

Windows 95
486/33 or higher
8 MByte RAM
20 MByte hard disk

A real powerhouse!

cfitz

[Marge]

Wow! Guys (am assuming you are all guys; if not, sincere apologies) What great feedback! Thank you all!

How can I tell whether or not I have DMA? I have just skimmed thru' the FAQ and found out what it is; checked my CD ROM in device manager but found no mention of it. The FAQ indicated that in OS older than win98, it could take a registry tweak to enable it, but did not elaborate on what one would actually be looking for. I have windows95a, if that means anything. I did a kernal update some time ago - version 4.71.0728.0, but do not know if that is germain, either:-) It is not transparent to find out what build one has of win95.

Action Jackson, good point about the possibility of upgrading one of these years. I love my box as it is, but I know the handwriting is on the wall for it. Since it ain't broke, I don't want to fix it just now, but.....

cfitz, I did a small search last night for an 8x - 10x drive - did not have a lot of time for this as had to hit sack for early meeting today - but noted that there were very few and those seemed quite expensive compared to the prices I have seen for newer drives...interesting. Also reassuring that I do not have to find something specifically for P133 and that 166 would actually work. I tend to buy my stuff online, so big box availabilty isn't key. I never have time to actually *go* shopping in stores:-)

So, it seems that what you're saying is that I need to look for the MINIMUM burn rate a drive can handle. If it can slow down to 4x or 8x then any top speed would actually work on my set up because the system would simply slow the works down to a speed that my box could handle without blowing up? Am I right or wrong here?

jase, you're still recommending looking for a slower (16x/24x/32x) drive. Is this because it would create less wear on my box or because it would have a chance of working better? Considering that when I use my current CD drive to read a CD, even 6x seems an adequate speed, I don't think I'm going to turn into a speed demon, although I understand that faster speeds mean it takes less time to burn a CD and that could get to mean something once I got into it and having my system tied up for extended periods doing this got old fast. However, it also seems that my system is going to dictate the speed the CDRW can run, no matter what the drive is capable of?? Is this right?

I have been aware of buffer under run in a vague sort of way, thanks for bringing it back to the front of the mind - and also thanks for the list I should be looking for. Even knowing nothing about CDRW, it has seemed to be a good idea to have as much of this type of protection as possible, particularly since I don't have a lot of free space.

My box is currently pretty maxed out space-wise, which is one reason (besides the back up needs) that it would be nice to be able to burn a CD and offload some files to free up space. My impression is that you need a lot of space free for the burning process and that's been rather worrying; was hoping I could use CDRW to put some files on a disk; delete them from the HD and free space to move more, but I may be wrong - need to read that entire FAQ:-)

cfitz, Kind of you to offer your old Memorex CRW-1622 2x2x6 CD-RW, but it sounds like it may even be a tad slow for me:-) We shall see; may be back to take you up on it:-)

jase. you've also helped clarify something for me. I was getting confused in my search because I would only find the 8x or 10x as the middle number as in 40x/10x/xxx and was wondering whether that was the place I should be looking for it:-) Yes, I know, a dummy question. I need to go back to the FAQ and get the read/write speeds and what they mean more firmly in the old brain.

I know this may be opening a can of worms, but do you-all have any manufacturers that are known to be the best ones or ones I should not waste my time researching? I've been told Sony and Yamaha are good companies. While I am as interested as the next person in getting a good price, my prime concern is getting a good, solid piece of hardware with the right software, firmware and whatnot, that isn't going to go south on me in a few weeks or create massive problems just 'cause it was a "deal". I'm no tech and mucking around inside my computer installing things is NOT my preferred activity in life:-) Makes me nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof...

You guys have gone a long way to point me in the research direction I should go here. I was just stumbling around in the dark until I found this site and forum! Thank You!

Really appreciate the input!!!

[BillyG]

I have a freind who has a 166 Pentium (Windows 98 SE and 196K memory), he plans to buy a new PC soon and give his old PC to his kids for games and the internet.

I installed a Acer 24X burner (Digital Research rebranded) and it works just fine with it using Nero. I wouldnt buy ANY CD-RW drive that doesnt have any buffer underrun protection feature. Even slow PC's will benefit from it.

BTW check http://www.package2you.com now and then they have closeout deals on older 8X-to-12X CD-RW drives. If you looking for out-of-stock parts and cheap upgrades to old PC's there a lot of awesome deals here...and the service is fast!

Also check out http://www.pricewatch.com and check under Storage-CD-R Recorders.

[cfitz]

I wouldnt buy ANY CD-RW drive that doesnt have any buffer underrun protection feature. Even slow PC's will benefit from it.

Particularly slow PC's will benefit from it. But your main point is spot on - don't buy a drive without buffer underrun protection.

cfitz

[jase]

The ONLY reason I suggested a slower writer was price. That said, writers are so cheap now that it probably doesn't make much difference. Yes, buffer underrun protection is a very desirable feature.

I would personally buy a solid drive, and let's rephrase what I was saying, don't put too much emphasis on maximum burning speed. If you can find a 40x for half the price of a 52x, I wouldn't personally spend the extra -- and I'm a heavy CDR user. I just do not see the point when the burn times are only going down by seconds, and the burn quality can go down. I usually burn everything at 16x I have to say, despite having 40x burners. If the 40x is $40 and the 52x is $80, spend the extra $40 on some decent quality CDRs.

As for manufacturers, I'd be looking at LiteOn, LG, Samsung, Plextor, TEAC, Yamaha.

Don't pay extra for TDK or Sony over LiteOn -- they are the same drives.

And good luck!

[cfitz]

How can I tell whether or not I have DMA?

It sounds like you already checked and found that you do not have DMA drivers, but here is the procedure for future reference by readers who may not be familiar:

start->settings->control panel
double click "system" icon
select "device manager" tab
expand "disk drives" and select your hard disk
click "properties" and select the "settings" tab in the resulting window
look for a check-box labeled DMA - it may or may not be checked, but if you have the drivers installed the box should be there

I have windows95a, if that means anything. I did a kernal update some time ago - version 4.71.0728.0, but do not know if that is germain, either:-) It is not transparent to find out what build one has of win95.

Select the "general" tab in the "system" contol panel applet. The Windows version will be listed there. Check the following link to match that version number to a Windows 95 release:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... us;q258757

If you have 95A (retail SP1 / OEM Service Release 1), you do not have built-in DMA support (as you apparently have already discovered). In the interests of not breaking your computer, I suggest you pass on upgrading to DMA.

So, it seems that what you're saying is that I need to look for the MINIMUM burn rate a drive can handle. If it can slow down to 4x or 8x then any top speed would actually work on my set up because the system would simply slow the works down to a speed that my box could handle without blowing up? Am I right or wrong here?

You are right, but as both Jase and I recommended, I would go for the 4x minimum.

My impression is that you need a lot of space free for the burning process and that's been rather worrying; was hoping I could use CDRW to put some files on a disk; delete them from the HD and free space to move more, but I may be wrong

No, you shouldn't need a lot of space. Obviously you will need space to install the burning software. On my system a full install of Nero takes up ~40 MBytes - you should be able to pare that down to less than 20 MBytes by doing a minimal install. And you will need a little bit of file buffering space - but that is configurable. For the most part, though, the burning process will burn directly from the files as they are stored on your hard drive. It doesn't need to make a complete CD image copy on the hard drive before burning.

cfitz, Kind of you to offer your old Memorex CRW-1622 2x2x6 CD-RW, but it sounds like it may even be a tad slow for me:-)

It is whimpering the corner right now, its little heart broken...

I know this may be opening a can of worms, but do you-all have any manufacturers that are known to be the best ones or ones I should not waste my time researching? I've been told Sony and Yamaha are good companies.

Naturally everyone has his or her own opinion. However, I think I can safely make a few generalizations. Yamaha and Plextor have good reputations as solid burners, but are rather pricey. LiteOn (who makes the drives sold by Sony) is well liked by many on these forums. Teac, Samsung and LG also have their adherents. Personally I would avoid Benq (formerly Acer) drives.

In my own personal experience I have bought a Yamaha and Memorex branded LiteOn drive for myself, a Benq and another Memorex branded LiteOn drive for my friends, and used an Acer drive at work. I have been equally satisfied with my Yamaha and Memorex/LiteOn drives. I have been disatisfied with the Acer/Benq drives. In fact, I returned the Benq that I purchased and exchanged it for a Memorex/LiteOn.

cfitz

[cfitz]

Marge, do you have an Office Max near your home? Ian just posted a great deal for a Cendyne 48x12x48 burner (really a LiteOn drive) for $30 after rebates:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 0251#40251

The sale is good from 11/17 through 11/23. The deals may vary by area, so you need to check the ad for your store specifically. Just follow Ian's link. I don't know whether or not the same deal will be available online.

Ian has reviewed the drive in both its Cendyne and LiteOn incarnations:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=149
http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=131

Its minimum burn speed is 4x, so it should provide you plenty of cushion. And, of course, it does have buffer underrun protection.

Look for SMART-BURN or SMART-X on the box to make sure it actually is a LiteOn inside. But even if you can't find the label, you might want to buy it and try it anyway. Office Max has a 14-day return policy on electronics, so you can always return it if it doesn't work out.

cfitz

[dacdwriter]

Hello,

Just my $.02 worth but, I had an old IBM Aptiva with an AMD 300 K6-2 and Win 95 and can't get a cdrw to work. Windows recognizes the drive in device manager, but it work burn discs, it keeps asking for recordable media and I've tried all kinds. I've tried different burning programs. I was using a Sony 12X cdrw and even tried an LG 16X with the same results.

[cfitz]

I had an old IBM Aptiva with an AMD 300 K6-2 and Win 95 and can't get a cdrw to work.

Well, I don't know what bad luck you ran into, but CD-RW drives will, in general, work on Windows 95 systems.

cfitz

[BillyG]

Particularly slow PC's will benefit from it. But your main point is spot on - don't buy a drive without buffer underrun protection.
cfitz

I burned so many coasters using 4X and 12X drives that didnt have it, and it was such a hassle to turn off all other programs and leave the PC alone to burn the CD for 20 minutes.

When I got my 24X Plextor I was so happy that I could burn a CD-R under 5 minutes, surf the web, chat on MIRC, do some work and leave programs running. Im glad it's become standard in all CD-R drives, we wouldnt have any 24X to 52X burners without buffer underrun protection.

For people new to computers burn proof and high speed burners makes making a CD-R (almost) idiot proof. When you can buy a 48X Lite-On for 30 bucks after rebate why buy a refurbished 8X (unless you can get it for under $15)

[Marge]

Another Wow! guys and thanks for all your great info. The old mind is fading at this point, but to report back here:)

cfitz...followed your links and checked out OfficeMax. Unfortunately the nearest store is a couple hours away from me; the site offers that unit, but the deal ain't quite as sweet.

I've read both the reviews for the Cendyne and LiteOn units - both seem great, but on going to the mgf. web sites, I find both of them want win98 as a min.

I then read the LTR-40125S review - boy, Ian writes great reviews; so in depth and actually understandable by dimwitted newbies (except for some of the testing) - anyway, the mgf. site indicates that this one will work with DOS win 3.1 and win95 and newer...seems it might just be more my speed. It also writes to 4x. This also seems to be available online for around $60. Didn't do a huge search for it, but found a few places, so figure there might even be a better deal somewhere.

What do you all think of this drive?

The one thing that it said in the specs that it needed was HDD must have access time < 20ms. Now, I have no clue how to discover whether my drives (I have 2, 2 GIG Seagate drives) has that access time. Any clues on the trail to follow to find that out?

I also looked at a Plextor review, but it seemed like the LiteOn Smart-X / Smart-Burn and the Nero software were more attractive than what Plextor was offering. The only downside to LiteOn seems to be the total lack of support:-(

I also followed your trail and confirmed that I have win95 4:00.950a which does not have DMA. Microsoft's site seemed to indicate one could add this, but it sounded very like flashing BIOS, which I've been advised by Dell techs to avoid...

One of the reviews (can't recall which) said you really needed DMA...I am wondering if that was just for speed or not having it would affect accuracy or something else?

So sorry your old Memorex CRW had it's feelings hurt by my rejection....por lil' thing:-)

Thanks also, Jase for your clarification on the drive speed issue. It seems (tho' I have not had time to check out all the manufacturers) that the newer faster drives are going to want win98 and newer. I'm getting a tad cross-eyed tonight, but intend to check out some more drives tomorrow night and see if there are others that might fit my situation.

BillyG - thanks for those links, have bookmarked both of them and will keep checking them.

You guys are tops!

[Inertia]

Hi, Marge

Your Seagate drives are so old now that the specs are no longer on their site. The drives should be well under 20ms access time. Most older drives of that genre may have had access times of up to 14ms or so. Be sure to defragement the drives before using them for burning operations.

The Lite-on LTR 40125S would be an excellent and very cost effective choice. If your current system won't allow it to operate at top speed, it will still be ready for high performance should you upgrade.

Although Windows 95a generally will allow operation of CD-RW drives, you are much more likely to have problems with it and a new CD-RW drive than with a newer Windows operating system. For openers, there is the DMA scenario. DMA is a must for efficient operation of new drives, and you will be giving up performance by default when you can't use it reliably in Windows 95. Busmastering and associated drivers in Win95 are relatively primitive and troublesome compared to later operating systems.

If I had to offer one piece of advice, it would be to upgrade to Windows 98SE if you can find a copy. It is a much better program than the original Win95, and supports most modern protocols like DMA very reliably. It is also not a memory hog like the WinNT/2000/XP programs, which would be unsuitable for your older computer. I would also not recommend WinME, which has its own problems and requires more memory and resources than Win98SE.

[cfitz]

I've read both the reviews for the Cendyne and LiteOn units - both seem great, but on going to the mgf. web sites, I find both of them want win98 as a min.

I know that Cendyne (incorrectly) states 98SE as the minimum requirement - they are probably being conservative because they want to be able to sell a variety of drives from different OEMs under their packaging. Repackagers such as Cendyne and Pacific Digital will will put different drives with basically equivalent specs into their boxes. That is why I suggested looking for SMART-BURN on the box's label to be sure a LiteOn drive was inside. As for the LiteOn requiring 98, I don't know where you saw that. Here is the link to LiteOn's site stating that the drive is 95 compatible:

http://www.liteonit.com.tw/new_p_e/engl ... w48125.htm

And here is the link to the included Nero Burning ROM software stating that the minimum requirement for it is Pentium 90, 16 MB RAM, 12 MB disk space and Windows 95:

http://www.nero.com/en/index.html#c1002822593674

I then read the LTR-40125S review - What do you all think of this drive?

This is also a fine drive.

The one thing that it said in the specs that it needed was HDD must have access time < 20ms. Now, I have no clue how to discover whether my drives (I have 2, 2 GIG Seagate drives) has that access time. Any clues on the trail to follow to find that out?

Don't worry about it. Inertia spoke well.

The only downside to LiteOn seems to be the total lack of support:-(

What are we, chopped liver??

I also followed your trail and confirmed that I have win95 4:00.950a which does not have DMA. Microsoft's site seemed to indicate one could add this, but it sounded very like flashing BIOS, which I've been advised by Dell techs to avoid...

I've read that it can be done, but, again, I would not recommend it. As Inertia stated, Windows 95 DMA drivers have a reputation for being troublesome. Your system is working well for you now, and should be fine for the CD-RW too, although you won't be able to burn at top speed. If it ain't broke, don't fix it...

One of the reviews (can't recall which) said you really needed DMA...I am wondering if that was just for speed or not having it would affect accuracy or something else?

Just for speed. So, you won't be burning at 48x. But, you have indicated that is okay with you.

cfitz

[cfitz]

Marge, if you have a Staples in your local area you might want to check for the following hot deal:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 0375#40375

The 40x12x48 Sony drive being offered for $12 after MIR is essentially the LiteOn LTR-40125S you were looking at. I don't know about the B's Recorder Gold software included with Sony drives, since I have never used it. You can read about it yourself here:

http://www.bhacorp.com/products/gold_w/goldbp.pdf
http://www.bhacorp.com/products/gold_w/gold_win.html#

cfitz

[Marge]

Hi Guys...once again, you've given me food for thought here.

cfitz - Thank you once again! I do have a Staples near here and will get on the horn and see if that special is in that store. B's Recorder GOLD .pdf file says it's BurnProof Compatible, which makes me think it's not part of the program tho' it says it has Disc Rescue. Otherwise, to my ignorant eye, it seems to be able to do a lot.

You are quite correct about the LiteOn listing win95...the old eyes must have missed that one..thanks! Back on my list it goes;)

No! You are NOT chopped liver - you're the best, but I don't want to bug you all the time:-)

I've always operated under the "if it ain't broke..." point of view;-)

Inertia, thank you for your thoughtful post. I have avoided upgrading the OS on my box because I have it tweaked just exactly like I want it and use some older programs constantly that I fear would not work on a newer version of windows.

Although Windows 95a generally will allow operation of CD-RW drives, you are much more likely to have problems with it and a new CD-RW drive than with a newer Windows operating system. ....

Hmmm....while I don't mind burning at a slower rate, I'm not too keen on opening Pandora's Box and screwing up my system in some way...

This concern brings up another totally dumb question. We are getting a Dell Precision340 workstation for CAD in our home office - Pentium4, 80GIGs, Windows XPpro. It is coming with a CD-RW drive (Lord only knows whose; I could not get this info. out of the Dell salesperson). Also don't know what software comes with it, but expect I could get Nero if it turns out to be something .5 (likely, knowing Dell).

Anyway, my intent has been to network my box to this new one, primarily thinking I could offload files and free up space on my system. Well, yesterday someone told me that I could use the CD-RW drive on the new system through the network. I know even less about networking than I do CD-RW drives, but if this is so, would it make more sense than trying to put a drive on my system? Or, would it be better to go ahead and get a drive for my system and see what happens?

Networking is next on my list of things I need to research and learn about.

I really had wanted to get something for my system so I could back it up before I got too tricky trying to network it and all...makes me very nervous not being able to do this for so long...playing with fire here. OTOH, if I can use the new system, I would not have to try to install a drive on mine...which is sort of nervous-making. The only stuff I've installed is modems and memory.

Dither, dither....


[/quote]

[cfitz]

B's Recorder GOLD .pdf file says it's BurnProof Compatible

That means it can properly use the buffer underrun protection of the CD-RW drive. That's a good thing, although it isn't a surprise. I think all modern burning software will properly work with buffer underrun protection schemes. And you can be assured that if Sony is shipping the software with their drive that it is compatible with the drive.

No! You are NOT chopped liver - you're the best, but I don't want to bug you all the time:-)

That's okay, we will just start pestering you with questions about growing plants in the shade.

This concern brings up another totally dumb question. We are getting a Dell Precision340 workstation for CAD in our home office - Pentium4, 80GIGs, Windows XPpro. It is coming with a CD-RW drive (Lord only knows whose; I could not get this info. out of the Dell salesperson).

No guarantee, but there is a very good chance it is a LiteOn drive. Dell sells a lot of OEM drives made by LiteOn.

Anyway, my intent has been to network my box to this new one, primarily thinking I could offload files and free up space on my system. Well, yesterday someone told me that I could use the CD-RW drive on the new system through the network. I know even less about networking than I do CD-RW drives, but if this is so, would it make more sense than trying to put a drive on my system? Or, would it be better to go ahead and get a drive for my system and see what happens?

There are programs available specifically for burning to CD-RW drives over the net (e.g. DiscJuggler .NET), but I think this is overkill for your needs (assuming it even works with Windows 95 - big 'if'). Assuming you are just doing occasional backups, I would suggest just copying your files over the network to the new machine and burning them to CD-R from the new machine. That might be easiest. Do you already have a network card installed on the old machine? That might be an important factor in making your decision.

cfitz