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Review of:
Hi-Val CD-Recorder Internal IDE 
by Jay Leggett
I have been drooling all over my shoes for a CD-R ever since I have known of their existence. When CompUSA put them on sale for $199.99, all of my efforts to conserve money just vanished. 

 Out came the abused credit card (You know the one that has personally carried the current economy. The same economy the "Prez" claims so much credit for) and down to CompUSA I went. 

My purchase made, my seat belt tighten, and I was ready to run the gauntlet of Castle Hills to reach my Section Eight getto apartment. Yes!!!! Made it again without a speeding ticket. 

 A quick look at the very sparse installation instructions and screwdrivers were flying. The unit physically installed, I brought up Windows 95 to install the IDE software when the CD-R came up on its own. Windows 95 had recognized both my normal CD and the new CD-R. To "a recording" we will go! To "a recording" we will go! To "a recording" we will go! 

 The CD-R came with only a single IDE ribbon cable so I used one of my old double cables. I was cutting disks faster than I could buy them. Then it happened. I started getting intermittent errors. I traced these problems to the used cable. I have had no more errors since I replaced the old cable with a new one. 

 The unit came with Hi-Val CD Right Plus and Adaptec DirectCD (Ver. 1.01) software. I installed the Hi- Val CD Right Plus only. To date it does all I currently wish to do: 

     
  1. Music CD to CD. 
  2. Data CD to CD. 
  3. Hard Disk data to CD.
I am sure I will be acquiring some more sophisticated software in the future, but for right now what I have is just fine. 
 
 

Things I like

The CD-R was very easy to install and get up and running. I had some installation questions because my computer is so packed and networked. I called the "800 Number" and as promised they got back with me within 24 hours. Best of all, the tech on the other end knew his craft. 
 
 

Things I do not like

The instruction booklet and user manual are practically non-existent. While Help does offer some explanations, it is very far from ideal. It is still trial by fire and error in getting some of the esoteric features working. 

 The serial number is very hard to find and there is no reference to its location in the literature. 
 
 

Over All

Now that I have learned the "hard way" to operate the unit, I am very pleased with the quality of the CDs produced. I would recommend buying the unit to anyone who would like a low cost CD-R. The total cost after stamps, taxes, new ribbon cable and rebates was $221.37. 

System Requirements

486DX66 or Higher, Pentium recommended; Windows 95 or higher; Free IDE socket; 8MB RAM, 16MB free disk space. 

 Jay Leggett has been a member of Alamo PC for over one year. He is still unemployed, very rotund, old and endowed with very few, if any, social redeeming qualities. However, with a great deal of effort on his dance instructor's part his Tango has become outstanding.