* Write 4x/Rewrite 4x/Read 32x (screaming!)
* connects to your E-IDE/ATAPI bus (easy installation!)
* 5.25" form factor
* 120ms typical access time
* flash memory for firmware updating (cool!)
* bundled feature-packed software
* reads/plays all CD formats
* writes to standard CD-R and CR-RW formats (latter is 650MB,
74 minutes)
Mike was shopping at Micro Center in Southern California and the price on this drive has been dropping like a lead balloon. I bought one at $199, $30 *below* the price he paid for his two weeks ago... is there any end in sight!? Plus, Micro Center is offering its own $30 mail-in rebate (ends September 30) so my net price was $169. WOW!
So, what's the buzz with CD-RW drives? According to a recent PC Computing magazine report, the Iomega Zip 100 owned 75% market share of February 1999 U.S. sales of removable storage devices. Look for that to change, quickly. With these low prices and high feature points, we predict CD-RW drives are going to outpace the Iomega Zip.
A current mail-order street price for an Iomega Zip 100 drive is $99, and a Zip 250 is $139. Yes, those prices are temptingly low, even when compared to the featured Acer CD-RW price. But remember, the CD is a vastly more prevalent device (and format) than a Zip cartridge, a CD holds between 3 (650/250) and 6.5 times (650/100) more data, and you can't listen to a Zip cartridge at your PC or in your car stereo. Also, cartridges cost more: pre-formatted cartridges run about $12 each (100MB) and $18 each (250MB); rewritable CDs cost about $4 each; recordable (once only) CDs cost about $2 each.
Here's an installation tip for this or any additional IDE drive. Well before you're ready to actually do the installation, open your PC's chassis and examine the 40-pin IDE cable for the IDE channel you're putting the drive on. A 40-pin IDE cable is the flat gray cable that connects your motherboard to any hard disk, CD, or other drive on your IDE bus. The motherboard diagram in your user's manual will indicate which port is IDE1 and which is IDE2, and It's typically marked on the motherboard surface, too.
In my case, I left my standard CD-ROM drive as the master device
on IDE2 and installed the CD-RW as the slave device on IDE2. If
the target IDE channel's cable is a one-drive cable, as mine was,
you'll need to replace it with a two-drive ("Y" or "splitter")
type cable, available for about $6 at any electronics parts
store. (I forgot to check the cable in advance, so had to do a
last-minute scramble for this part.) The Acer drive's
installation instructions are satisfactory, and I had no
difficulties whatsoever on boot-up. This is a must-have drive,
folks.
http://www.acerperipherals.com/
ps_storage/ps_st_4432a.htm
(We just checked and you can get this same deal at Amazon.com --
USA only -- by following this link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/
B00000JBPS/tnpcnewsletter
The Amazon page did not say if they were extending the $30 rebate
period so be sure to check carefully before ordering, although
even the pre-rebate price of $199 is a great bargain. -- Ed.)
To make use of the recording capabilities of your CD-RW drive you'll need some special software. These utilities allow you to: format CDs to receive data, send data to them as if they were hard disks, add data to them, erase them, and set them up so that they can be successfully read by any standard CD-ROM drive.
There are plenty of CD-R/CD-RW utilities to choose from, but if you buy the Acer CD ReWriter you get the best utilities bundled right in with the drive: Adaptec Easy CD Creator and Adaptec DirectCD. Adaptec Easy CD Creator (along with its sidekick CD Copier) lets you make audio CDs and data CDs, copy CDs, and print disc inserts/labels. (All the usual caveats about preserving intellectual property rights apply.)
Adaptec DirectCD is the interface to your CD-RW drive should you want to use it like a floppy, removable, or hard drive. It lets you set up a CD-R or CD-RW disc so any software application that can read from or write to a drive letter can read/write to it, and provides an interface for saving files to that CD. Any disc recorded using DirectCD can be read by any other PC with a CD-RW drive using DirectCD, and can also be read by any PC with a standard CD-ROM drive by using Adaptec's freely downloadable UDF reader. (UDF stands for Universal Disk Format. According to Adaptec it is "a new file system with support for the current generation of CDs such as CD-RW, DVD-ROM and DVD-Video.")
UDF Readers (free):
http://www.adaptec.com/products/
overview/udfreaders.html
Adaptec Easy CD Creator patch:
http://www.adaptec.com/support/
upgrade/ecdc.html
Adaptec DirectCD patch:
http://www.adaptec.com/support/files/dcd.html
ACER CD-RW firmware flash upgrade:
http://www.acerperipherals.com/ss_do
wnload/ss_st_dl.htm
Coming soon, an in-depth review and recommendation of Veritas
Backup Exec Desktop Edition 4.2. It has revolutionized the way we
do data backups. If you just can't wait, click here:
http://support.veritas.com/menu_dd
product_BEDSKTOPEDT.htm
All things considered, buying a CD-RW drive was an easy decision for me, how about you? If you're a rewritable CD enthusiast, I'd like to hear from you.
