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CD-RW Okay for burning install CDs and such?

An external SCSI 1 to USB flashdrive would be nice.
From USB flashdisc (target), export to PATA (host/upstream), bridge exists. I fuzzily think it might be a chip by NEC, I did not write it down. To that, one can chain a PATA to SCSI bridge.

Off-topic: Tableau T8-R2 contains a FPGA to emulate PATA, which then goes to a JMicron PATA-to-SATA bridge, which then goes to SATA-to-(USB + 1394A) bridge.

CDRW has issues with original CDROM drives reading them (even some CDR's can be a pain).
Definitely, CD-R is not perfect, not even close to perfect, in older ROM drives. I do not care what anybody says: in my experience, CD-R in ROM does not work so many times, that I will never again even bother (unless I know subject drive features MultiRead).

Any brand CD RW drive will work, however some may not boot, right?
Wrong: either media is readable (which includes boot blocks) by a subject drive, or is not. "Not fully readable" is "not readable". Whether host system likes a subject drive, or firmware, is a different question.

The CD-Burner must say on it
Or MultiRead. MultiRead has a nice logo.

http://www.osta.org/specs/multiread.htm

I use CD-RWs all the time and they work for me on my Bondi Blue iMac and such.
Later revision iMacs were more likely to contain more-compatible drives than earlier revision iMacs. _opticaldrivesmatrix.pdf is a high-information-content document, worth keeping in any vintage Mac person's "digital reference bookshelf".

If it works and I want to archive it on recordable media, I'll write it to CD-R.
Nobody asked me, but I am a loudmouth and I must tell the world about me. I will never treat any CD as "archival". You read that right: 'any CD' includes pressed disc. How to image a disc, and how to employ image, is sometimes a challenge. But I will never treat a CD-ROM as something to last ages, without a backup.

 
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Completely, totally, 100% off topic here: I think maybe you should consider canning the dueling animated gifs in your sig. Please? A whole page of that is really hard to look at.
Ok... Ive gotta have one though. Sorry. I just love that gif. It makes me laugh every time.

Butterburger, as in any CD RW drive working, i meant in the actual Mac. The Mac with Toast or whatever should pick up any drive I think.

 
Yeah Johnnya101, I misread your words (multiple times) to be about disc/media rather than drive. Yes, a drive should work in OS even if not bootable.

 
By the way, instead of starting a new thread, my CD ROM in my PM G3 tower is making a loud HRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMM sound in Mac OS 9 with a CD in it, but when I use an install CD for OS X its a lot quieter. Are CDs just loud when they are idle or something?

 
Sometimes spinning things are louder at lower speeds than higher speeds. Sometimes an optical drive seems so loud, because it is vibrating in harmony with something else in computer case (could be fan, could be another drive). 'Resonating' or 'resonant frequency' might be thrown in there, but I do not know what those words mean.

 
Butterburger (Or anyone). I have stuffit expander on my Macbook Air (Which is 2013). What if I were to get a usb drive for my macbook, to write CDs, and then use them in my G3? Will the program still work fine? This is assuming my G3 will read RW disks.

By the way, I am looking for a FW 6 pin (Tapered edge, NOT square!) CD RW drive! Figured I would post it here for now rather than creating a thread.

 
The CD-Burner must say on it "CD RW" on it for it for it to be able to read a burned CD-RW Disc. According to memory, that is late model G3 Towers and most early G4 models and anything after that. But it is best to look at the face of the drive and see if it has "CD-RW" Label etched on its plastic face. Only then can you be sure if it is a working drive.
 This is just a flat-out lie. A drive being a CD-RW drive is helpful, but is not itself mandatory.

You do not need to have a CD-RW drive to read CD-RW disks.

In general, buy the best media you can buy. Does Taiyo Yuden make CD-RW media? Buy that. Unless you're so destitute that this is just to avoid needing to buy more than five or so disks, buy the best CD-RWs you can afford and treat them well.

I would personally put "the line" for what can or can't read CD-RWs a little older than 1998. I've got PC equipment from the mid '90s that reads CD-RWs well enough. On Macs, you can easily substitute the mechanism in, say, a CD300e for a CD1200 mechanism and you'll be good to go on any system.

Without buying a bunch of equipment, your best bet for CDs on early '90s machines is to buy a stack of Taiyo Yuden media and burn them as slow as your software and hardware will let you.

Of course, if you're talking about G3 era stuff, just burn one 8.5 or so boot CD with the networking extensions on it, set up a netatalk server and then install your OS from the network. The iMac (even the /233) can netboot, too. Although a beige G3 will not be able to.

 
Taiyo DOES make CDs, but they are CD R. As Ive said, CD R is fine, but I would hate to make mistake and waste a disc.

Im actually going to be buying a cheap internal drive thats IDE so I can swap out my external HD with it, and use it as external. I have not tried yet to see if it can read anything. 

Do I need any special software to burn from a Windows laptop? Its all I've got until I get an external drive for my Mac.

 
By the way, I am looking for a FW 6 pin (Tapered edge, NOT square!) CD RW drive! Figured I would post it here for now rather than creating a thread.
Are you looking for bus-powered? If yes, then consider Dell part 8R611 (combo drive). It is a good enclosure 'Ext. Media Unit', designed/engineered/ODM'ed by Samsung. Or get any Samsung SEM-Q10E and replace the drive yourself.

 
its been a VERY long time since I messed with CD-RW and my memory is lacking, but I do recall the reason some drives can read CD-RW while some drives cannot has to do with the single-beam pickup vs 3-beam pickup. I forget the exact details but I do remember a study on it years and years ago. 

Drives with 1 type of laser will read the disc, and drives with the other, will not because of the reflectivity layer. 

 
Yeah. I remember running into this issue a long time ago. I doubt any drive before 1998 or so can read a CD-RW reliably.

 
I'm finding CD-Rs have been going up in price over the past five years here. In 100 packs, CD-R are $0.60/ea, DVD-R are $0.20/ea, BD-R HTL are $0.80/ea. Part of this price imbalance may have to do with a levy on CD-R media lobbied by the recording industry at the end of the last millennium, and certainly lower demand.

 
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CD stuff is perhaps category which I find in garage and yard sales second-most frequently (after clothing): cake boxes of them, in matching jewel cases, books with CD pockets (large "binder" size through small "wallet" size), stacks of clear empty cases, organiser shelves/towers/racks/stands, and CD holders which strap-on to car sun visor.

 
I use fewer CDRs are time goes by since my collecting has shifted to system with USB.

CDRW is great if a machine can read it just so you don't have to put another plastic disc in the trash when the task is done.

CDR media prices are going up from lack of demand, but I can still get a cheap spool of 100 around the holiday sales.

Think I still have a few DVD+R disks from 15 years ago I have not used yet.

 
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