Apple CD300e - CD-RW??

[BadGoldEagle]

I got a CD300e from bibilit. Found the appropriate drivers, I just need the CD caddy to start using this thing.

The game I want to burn is Commanche Mac (available through the Mac Garden), it is a 700meg image. It's the only way to play this game on my SE/30 as the Floppy EMU can't be used in HD20 mode on this machine (with stock ROM, that is).

But I was wondering, can you use CD-RW or CD+RW with a CD300? I would burn the CD using another machine, that would be my Apple USB Superdrive (DVD player/reader, not the Floppy drive, sorry if I got one of you excited about an Apple USB Superdrive Floppy drive  )

I read that I should use a slow burning speed to obtain good results, i.e. slower than 4x, but then the CD300 is only a 2x drive...

What do you think, is this feasible?

 

[olePigeon]

It's up in the air.  Perhaps if you burn it at 2x or even 1x speed, maybe.  And that's assuming the laser is in OK shape.

 

[Gil]

Burning at the lowest possible speed is key. 1x or 2x as mentioned above. I've had no issues with burned CD's working in older drives when following this method. Keep in mind that many newer burners/media/software can not burn at speeds lower than 8x or so.

 

[Elfen]

CD-RW on a 300e//i? No. Wait... RW as in Re-Writable? No.

Back in those days, the CD Drives were sensitive to the most studipest of issues - even the color of the CD mattered! Back then there were some Blue ones, Green ones and silver ones, and depending on the drive, all can read the silvers ones, but it was a coin toss between the blue and greens ones. The RW format was a curve ball to these drives. Funny - Mickey Soft had some voodoo that made CDWs into CD-RWs but at the cost of CD Space. Every time you needed to add data to the drive, you lose 20% to 50% of the disc's capacity and it can only be done a couple of times... but it worked for its intended purpose.

You would need to investigate what CD-Ws you have and what works with the drive  It can be a bit of a headache but finding this out now will save headaches later.

 

[Macdrone]

If you "close session" on a CDRW it will act like CDR media and may work also.  But Elfen and Gil are correct on older drives and media types and speed being issues as not reading.  I have an apple 2 300e's hooked up to my color classic for that exact reason on burned media as I had crappy burn media back in the day, that I still have.  When I need it i put some disks in one drive and some in the other as the heads , even tho exact same year and model internal drive do better with different media.  Speed of burning if you can take the time at 1x helps a lot, that and let it check the burn after was always a good idea.

 

[Byrd]

I'm putting my money on you'll never be able to read a CD-RW on an Apple 300e - nor most CD-Rs for that matter.  You could obtain a 8/12/24 Apple SCSI CD-ROM drive and replace the internal 300e in the case easily enough, which will.

 

[Paralel]

Definitely use the best CD-R you can, with the slowest speed, if you are going to try. The gain from CD-RW are even worse than CD-R when it comes to reading them.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

I wasn't planning on adding anything to the CD once it was burned. I just wanted to be able to re-use the CD afterwards to transfer other kind of data. (wipe it clean and restart)

 

[Macdrone]

the fact that CDRW are meant to be reused seem to make them harder to read is the point, it may or may not work.  The same with different brand and color media.  The speed write speed being low seems to "lock in" if you will the media better to be more like a "produced" cd rom

The worst that will happen is try and it wont work.  Make sure the format of the disk is mac so you dont get the disk is unreadable because its not a format it knows.

 

[techknight]

CDRs are fine. you wont have any issues, I highly recommend the Diamond version though, they have a better reflective surface that works better in older drives. 

CD-RWs will never work in any drive that arnt certified to read them, the power levels needed to read those disks are different than regular CD-Rs and CDs.