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Posted by Dubious Dude on 06/12/07 04:00
Mike S. wrote:
> In article <f4jicf$os6$1@reader2.panix.com>,
> Mike S. <retsuhcs@xinap.moc> wrote:
>> In article <f4i5mb$ae7$1@aioe.org>, Dubious Dude <Shifty@eyes.com> wrote:
>>> I have an old laptop that I want to do selective backup on. Rather
>>> than using a 2nd hard drive to mirror the current drive, I'll reduce
>>> risk by backing up to DVD so that I can distribute the info over time
>>> and over DVDs. The problem is that it only has USB 1. The laptop can
>>> take CardBus, however, which can apparently provide USB 2
>>> connectivity. I compared DVD speeds to USB 2 speeds:
>>>
>>> http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.2
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#USB_signaling
>>>
>>> Apparently, the 60MBps of USB 2 is often not realized. Typical speeds
>>> are upto 10-20MBps, and more often at 3MBps. However, 8-16x DVD
>>> speeds range over 10.57-21.13MBps; this really pushes the upper limit
>>> of practical USB 2 speeds, and is an order of magnitude above the
>>> typical 3MBps speed. In practice, has this been a concern?
>>>
>>> If so, what is a better solution?
>>>
>>> If not, what is a recommended drive and CardBus?
>>>
>>> My system is a Dell Inspiron 8000 running Windows 2000.
>>>
>>> I intend to use Roxio or Nero to burn the DVD-Rs, sometimes
>>> multisession, sometimes single session (in the lingo of CDs that I got
>>> familiar with). This allows me to read them in standard CD readers
>>> without application-specific software.
>>>
>>> I decided against DVD-RAM because it seems less supported, and more
>>> expensive. If the error correction offsets these disadvantages, I'd
>>> be interested in hearing your experience.
>> A Cardbus USB2 host controller is the only practical way of adding i/o
>> that could be used to burn DVD's on your old laptop. Even though real
>> world throughput is often short of the spec, you should not hesitate for
>> theoretical concerns. After all, it's pretty much your only choice. USB1
>> does not have the throughput for even a 1X DVD burn.
Yes, I guess I should test the actual throughput of any CardBus USB 2 so that I
know what to set the write speed to.
>> I'd think twice about using multisession on anything other then DVD-RW
>> which is, of course, not an archival format. Multi-session DVD's are
>> problematic on OS versions before Windows XP; and even then there is
>> always the possibility that you may only "see" the first session at some
>> critical moment.
>
> Sorry for the typo: that should be DVD+RW; not DVD-RW.
That's interesting. That means it's quite different from CD. For CD,
multisession has more to do with the file system rather than the media. That
means I can do multisession on CD-R and CD-RW. The latter simply means I can
erase and re-use the CD. The software affects potential for quirky behaviour in
multisession burns more than whether the media is read/writable. But then, I am
completely new to the DVD world, so there are lots of differences to learn about.
> One additional thought; it MIGHT be possible to find an internal DVD burner
> which will replace the internal CD drive in your laptop. Another mine
> field though; especially with regard to physical compatibility (especially
> the faceplace).
I thought about that -- Dell no longer even lists my machine on their site, at
least so far as peripheral compatibility goes. But in the end, I think I want
an external DVD burner simply because the laptop is old. No point getting
something specific to the laptop as I'm not sure how long it will last before it
kicks the bucket.
Having said that, however, I'll also add that I just got 500MB of used RAM and
the machine is super fast compared to the original 128MB (even with a slow
700MHz clock, which probably prolongs battery charge more than it impedes my
usage). So with the new lease on life, I'm hpoping that none of the components
fail too soon: motherboard, NIC, fan, keyboard, display hinge, hard drive &
controller, etc..
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