SUMMARY: CD R/W on SUN

From: Dave Martini (martini@mrpeabody.llnl.gov)
Date: Thu May 27 1999 - 15:17:03 CDT


Thanks to all the replies including a detailed response by Bryan Smith
which I've included at the end.

> I'm interested to know what CD R/W people are using
> on SUN. We are thinking of getting one to dump
> archive data to and give the CD's to indivudal users
> with their data on it so we can delete files
> from disk.

I don't know about DVD, but I just finished testing a Yamaha CRW4416sx
on an ultra2 with two different SCSI busses and a few other peripherals.
Running Solaris 2.6 and GEAR, it ran fine with some configuration changes.

- Alan

CD R/W: YAMAHA 4416TXZ (external scsi single-ended 50pin)
        Try http://www.shopper.com OR
            http://www.buy.com for great deals.
S/W: cdrecord-1.6 or later, free, easy to compile, works great.

I was told by jorg schilling, author of cdrecord, that DVD 4GB/side writer
is not in US markets yet. Beware of what you buy as DVD writer.

I am also looking into writing about 4GB on a cd/dvd disk. Please let me
know if you are successful. Thanks.

-Sundar

You might want to check out this site: http://www.cd-info.com/ Has pointers
to cd recordable faqs etc.

Cheers,
Tom Cowan

We are using a Yahama CRW4260tx along with HyCD Publisher (www.hycd.com) to
archive data. It works really well, but I don't know if it can be scripted for
automatic archiveing, etc.

Thanks,
Thomas Carter
I'm not sure what's available as far as DVD writers are concerned,
but there are CD writing tools for Solaris. Actually, I don't think
writing a CD is system dependant, but software dependant. I use
mkisofs to create a iso9660 (hsfs) image, and cdrecord to actually
put the image onto the CD. You need a little over 650MB of disk
space to create the image. I use a 4X CD writer from Smart &
Friendly, which houses a TEAC CD writer. Different software will
support different writers.

I'll be cleaning up a script I have for doing backups to CD and
making it available later this evening.

Yash

We are using cdr publisher from http://www.hycd.com, so far no
complaints. we have been archiving data from SunOS, and Solaris
to it fine for about 5 monhts now.

  Alex

CD-RW is EXTREMELY SLOW! Even a CD-RW that "burns" at 8x only
"rewrites" at 2x because that is the CD-RW spec. New CD-RW that
actually "rewrite" at 4x usually are *NOT* compatible with the
CD-RW 2x standard (and *REQUIRE* 4x CD-RW media).

IOMega Zip SCSI drives are probably a better solution and more
compatible.

Regarding rewritable DVD, there are three formats, of which, two
are recognized by the DVD consortium. DVD-RAM was the original
with DVD-R+W being recognized later (but still not out) and DVD-RW
just being released now. DVD-RAM and DVD-RW are only $500-700
whereas DVD-R+W is mega $$$ (like $3-5K!).

DVD-RAM comes in both disc (2.6GB single-sided, 4.7GB later this
year) and cartridge (5.2GB double-sided, 9.4GB later this year)
and the drive can read both (without a caddy!). Very nice and I
have one. But the software is Windows 95/98-only and still only
available for NT/MacOS. VERY FAST THOUGH -- 5x the speed of CD-RW
and the DRIVES READ *ALL* FORMATS!!! Unlike most DVD-ROM drives
(which do *NOT* even read DVD-R and most CD-RW discs!!!). Some of
the newer, 3rd generation DVD-ROM drives can read the single-sided
DVD-RAM media (and all generation panasonic drives do too). I
have had a DVD-RAM drive myself since last October (quite
excellent and FAST -- even as a CD drive! SCSI-only).

DVD-RAM drives can ALSO READ the older Panasonic PD media
(pre-CD-RW format). In this regard, DVD-RAM *MAY* be readable as
a generic PD device on non-Windows platforms. Although the UDF
filesystem format is not available (only native ufs/ext2/etc...
format). And there are other issues as well.

DVD-RW holds promise and 3.0GB (one-sided only). But is pretty
much too late to the party (just coming out). Although DVD-RW
promised CD-RW rewrite capability, it has still yet to be
implemented. But DVD-RW media *CAN* be read by most of the
DVD-ROMs on the market, at least most of the 2nd generation ones
can. But DVD-RW still suffers from the fact that it has NOT be
accepted as a formal rewritable DVD media standard. Software is
also currently limited to the Windows platforms (Mac
forthcoming???).

-- Bryan

Bryan J. Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org,bjs@crc.com
Software Engineer http://www.SmithConcepts.com/legal.html



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