Preserved Topic: DVD ram

Does anyone else use one of these?

About two(?) years ago a local company donated two used DVD rams to the museum I work at, they are not "burners" (they can't be closed), they are re-writeable dvd drives, they hold about 5 gigs per dvd "cartridge".

Anyway I stopped using them about 6 months ago because I had a whole disk go bad on me - I opened up a couple of my photoshop files and there were a few 1 pixel wide black lines running horizontally across a layer. I would erase them thinking maybe I accidentally used the line tool or something before I saved, but then the next time, same thing.

Then ALL of the files that I opened from this particular dvd had this same strange problem. So I thought that I should just copy them to another dvd, so I looked for another one, and picked one up from the stack. The guy who worked there before me had written on it "BAD DISC". (WTF?!) I guess he had the same problem.

I was sooooooo pissed that I banished all of the dvds to the back of the cabinet!! But I have about 5 DVD-RWs and two drives, that is like 20 gigs of portable storage.... if only I wasn't worried about all of my files going to hell! And I could really use it too because my average file size for images is around 50 - 100 mb each....

So has anyone else used one of these? I am thinking that maybe it was a piece of technology that never quite caught on, but I sure could use it. Any advice/help would be great.

wow... you're saying those things are older than two years? i'd personally be scared of any technology claiming to store on dvd that wasn't created within the past six months.

the major companies are just now starting to sell consumer-level dvd-recordable technology. standards haven't even been adopted... i'd say you've got an example of a technology that's about came out about a year too early and has major shortcomings...

in other words, i wouldn't trust what you have now.. though looking into the new gear is interesting.

(then again.. a just paid 170$ for a top of the line 45gig harddrive.. that's not too bad if you ask me)

cheers.mikey.milker

Wow I didn't even know they had that technology around then ...

Hello lotiss
Me think you have some pre-production prototype sort of thingie....
I think the apparatus has some major flaws. So do not use it any more.

But you need portable storage???
Why not use a cd burner ---> cheap relayable... but perhaps you need more space?
Then maybe this is what you need www.onstream.com i have read some good test reports about this thing.

Do Not under estimate the power of JOHN DOE

Jestah: Technology is relative. We called it technology when we rolled that first round rock down the hill...

ok thanks, I will continue to stop using them! I do have a cd burner too which i use for archive/storage, it is just hard for me to burn less than 400 mb to a cd, I am kinda neurotic like that.

I guess two years is a long time for technology, huh? I think you are right milker about a prototype thingy. And Rins, thanks for the link, but we are a little strapped for $$, ahh.... the joy of working for a non-profit..... no money, low wages, no raises.....

Eh lotiss here might be an handy idea:

Some CD burners can burn more than once to a cd... i am not shure how but it can be done. When the cd's the burner and the program can do this. you should be able to write a 50MB file on monday another on tuesday and two on wednesday....etc.

I now about non-profit organisations and most of them are out off money about halfway the year.... <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif"> (I am a volunteer at one myself)
But a harddisk in a removeable slot should not be that expensive.
And since this type of slot could be found second handed or in the back of the local computershop-storage room. That could be a possibility.
Otherwise try to look at an secondhanded tapestreamer somewhere....
Good luck

Do Not under estimate the power of JOHN DOE

[This message has been edited by Rinswind 2th (edited 11-27-2000).]

it doesn't matter waht kind of burner you have. what matters is do you have a CD-R or a CD-RW. the RW you can re-write and they can be used like another hard drive so you can drag-drop files onto the cd.

The problem with the RW is that if you write information to a disc you can only read it from the computer you wrote it to, or a computer with the same version of the "writing" software.

Right?

But for 1$ a cd the peace of mind that my files are permanently secured justifies closing the cd everytime i put one in the burner for me!

So that is how I manage my files ... ummm facinating.....

Anyway thanks Rins, we have a computer guy (he is a computer god who can fix anything!)who volunteers for us and gets us used chips and etc. from his "real" job, I will ask him about finding us some removable drives. And Volunteers ROCK! Good for you that you donate your time and energy for a good cause! More people should!

Lotiss: I don`t know what kind of cd burner you use, but my Samsung lets me burn a file, and then not close the cd, allowing me to write to the same cd again later, until it`s full. You might check the preferences or set up to see if yours will allow this, too.
Just thinking out loud, you may have already thought of this..

I was not refering to rewritable cd's... i was talking about Multi session CD's Like bob was talkking about...
Just to get no misunderstanding.... Normally RW cd's should be readable in more then one machine. The problem was with the first RW drives that they used a different laser/Coating combination. Which had some problems with normal Cdrom-drives. But nowadays it should work..

Oh boy i do need more experience with this kind of stuff.... i onlyknow some theory about.

Yeah lottiss Volunteer work rocks... it gave me back a lot of things

Do Not under estimate the power of JOHN DOE

Ok I will figure out through trial and error if I can use the open RW's on different machines throught the building. Old technology? Yeah we got that!! Plenty!!

<img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

ok so way too much or your guys' time has been spent discussing my file storage/sharing problems, sorry!

and thanks!