ASUS E818A & DVD-RAM

[kahunanui]

Since this is the first we've seen of a ROM drive that can handle DVD-RAM, can anyone confirm what we'll need in order to read RAM disks for W2K, XP and Linux flavors?

Tried it in the W2K system and it did not read the RAM disk. I didn't think we'll need drivers just for reading and not burning. Will i need to still install drivers in order to read the RAM disks?

Couldn't find anything on their support site that confirms this.

Thanks for any help!

[Ian]

This isn't the first time we've had a DVD reader that supports DVD-RAM. Unless you're running an OS like Vista, you'll need to install a UDF driver. Something like InCD reader should be fine I think.

[kahunanui]

This isn't the first time we've had a DVD reader that supports DVD-RAM.

DANG Ian, you sure are FAST! I was just coming back here to write that i solved it with that neato W2k DVD-RAM reader driver from Panasonic and you beat me to it.

I wish i would have known about other RAM reading drives, now i'm not sure i picked the best drive i could have. It seems pretty decent tho. It is for reading RAM disks on an older system that would have serious trouble writing such disks.

Unless you're running an OS like Vista, you'll need to install a UDF driver. Something like InCD reader should be fine I think.

Yes the Panasonic was perfect. They are definitely "...slightly ahead of their time".

I found that this drive does produce an error in Media Player Classic when watching a DVD movie where the LiteOn Combo drive doesn't. That is not good, but we didn't get this drive for that purpose anyway. I'll look into a firmware upgrade to see if that will help. I may even seek the advice of the learned Forum Users on that.

Thanks for such a fast response Ian!

[Ian]

What kind of error are you seeing?

[kahunanui]

What kind of error are you seeing?

Sorry, i didn't record exact error msg. I know the movie would play for about a half a minute and then it would crash with the error. I'll check it again and get back to you. It's probably something to do with the IO being the older ATA right off of the MB (SE4400BX-2). The LiteOn Combo drive plays movies without any problems however. We were very surprised that it was able to play them at all.

Perhaps the ASUS is more dependent upon a faster IO. I am happy that it reads the RAM ok and that is what we needed. I'll perform some tests copying data from the drive to HDD and see what happens. I can also try installing VLC and see if that works better.

Thanks Ian for everything. Your Forums are Awesome!

[kahunanui]

What kind of error are you seeing?

Aloha Ian! I since returned that particular DVD. But i did try another and didn't get any errors. Perhaps it was a fluke with that specific disk. As i wrote before, i'm quite amazed that it plays at all with the older slower IO. Guess it worked out pretty darn well considering.

Actually, now that i remember, i've actually burned a DVD using an old SE440BX / P3 600 MHZ system with only 768 MB RAM with an LGSA-H55NK. Of course it took a whole lot of time (at least 1.5 hrs to rip and burn). So i guess stranger things can happen. Makes me wonder whether i should have opted for a burner instead of just the reader. But we have other systems to do those tasks. All i need on this one is to read RAM disks.

Thanks again!