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Record Your Own CD: Pinnacle RCD-1000 
by Joe Brazell, Alamo PC

[pinnacle photo] CD-ROM may soon replace the magnetic tape as the backup storage media of choice, especially, for long term archives and storage of data for small businesses and home users. Recordable CD drives are rapidly dropping in price and becoming as affordable as tape drives. Recordable CD-ROM (RCD) offers many advantages over tape storage systems in the areas of reliability, performance and flexibility. I have learned from experience that tapes are subject to problems caused by magnetic/electromagnetic interference and heat. Tapes require special drives and software to read. CDS are not affected by electromagnetic interference, are more heat resistant than tapes and can be read by any CD drive sold today. This means that you do not need special software or hardware to restore the data back onto a hard disk before accessing it, since it can be read directly from the CD in a matter of seconds. This beats having to use tape to restore the data back onto the disk drive which can take 30 minutes or longer.
 
 

Installation

Installation of an RCD drive is usually relatively simple. In my case, I installed an external Pinnacle RCD-1000 with the SCSI controller card included in the kit and recorded my first CD in about two hours. The hardware installation only took less than 30 minutes, another 30 minutes to understand the manual, and one hour to test and record the CD.

 The RCD-1000 included an Adaptec 1522 SCSI controller card that I was able to install as jumpered into my 486/33 PC without changing any jumper settings. I removed the case, found an open card slot to install the card and closed up the case. Some systems that already have a SCSI controller or have a CD already installed my require more time to get configured. My PC already has a SoundBlaster CD and installed very smoothly. A set of Adaptec disks included with the package installed the drivers I needed by running a simple setup program and using the default values. Next I installed the RCD-1000 software for Windows again using all of the default values in the setup program. After reading several sections of the manual and trying to figure out what sections I really needed to understand, I decided to forget the manual and start experimenting. When I started the RCD-PC software from the Windows Icon, I discovered that it also loaded the Windows File Manager. I quickly discovered that I could copy files from the file manager to the RCD program by dragging them from the right hand (or file) panel of the file manager to the RCD window in a manner very similar to copying files between two directories using the file manager. Actually, no files are copied at this time. RCD just creates a file listing of all of the files to be recorded in a virtual image of the CD. A status bar across the bottom of the Windows told how much space the files would take on the CD and how much space was still free.

 After I copied all of the files to the RCD program, I pressed the record icon on the toolbar and entered some information in the Volume Descriptor Window like the volume name, my name, etc. and told the system to test write the CD.

Testing

Testing is a very crucial step in the process. During the test, no data is written to the CD but a simulation is performed to make sure that the buffer to the laser does not run out of data at the selected recording speed, and that everything is setup correctly. This system supports 1X and 2X recording speeds. Recording at lower speeds may be necessary for slower computer or a highly fragmented recording session. (The speed at which a CD is recorded does not affect the rate at which it can be read back.) Once the test has been completed, the disk will eject from the drive and can be reinserted to perform the actual write of the disk. I had a few minor problems at this point until I learned to turn off the progress meter and record at 1X on slower machines. Later after reading more of the manual, I was able to make some minor adjustments to my smartdrive and record at the full 2X capabilities. I was then able to use the CD in the CD-ROM drive that came with my SoundBlaster Multimedia Kit and all of the other computers I tested at work.
 
 

Recording

At 1X, a full CD (650MB) will take about 75 minutes to record or half the time for 2X recording or about 35 minutes. Recording data to CD requires about the same amount of time as recording to tape but the result is a copy that is more durable and can be accessed immediately without having to restore data back on your hard disk.

 With a little more practice I was able to add more data to my CD to make it a multi-session CD (one where not all of the data was recorded at the same time). I was also able to record audio tracks that could be played on an audio CD player or my PC. I was even able to copy a CD. I have been able to get the system to work with other systems that included a Dell notebook and a DEC PC with a built in SCSI Controller. Although Pinnacle does offer support for the drive with other controller cards, I had very little problem getting it to work with an NCR or a Future Domain Controller.

 The biggest disadvantage of the recordable CD is that it is not reusable. If an error occurs during a recording session you may not be able to use the CD. Recordable CDS are WORM (Write Once Read Many times) drives but they do allow you to add more files to the CD at a later time if space is still available on the CD. Furthermore, thanks to recent recording standards for CDS it is even possible to replace a file with newer versions ¾ if space permits on the CD. The CD writes a new directory track with a pointer to the new filename and provides no pointer to the old filename, although it still exists on the CD. New technology entering the market will provide rewriteable CDS that will allow you to treat a CD like a hard disk. This emerging technology is probably partly responsible for the recent drops in the price of hard disks as manufactures struggle to stay competitive.

 Pinnacle has since upgraded the RCD 1000 to the 5040, which features the Corel CD Creator 2.0 software (Win 3.1, 95 and NT ready) and has 4X read capability. The list prices for the complete drive kit are $1,295 (external) and $995 (internal) with street prices slightly below that. Blank recordable CDS are available at locally for about $7 each which is comparable to the price of a blank tape. These factors have made me a big fan of recordable CDs and Pinnacle Micro.

 Joe Brazell, a Refinery Economics Engineer for Diamond Shamrock, has a chemistry degree and a background in computer programing. Joe can be reached at joeb@diasham.com.