pics please?

wiki link has two.

I can't imagine most people would still use these over a cd drive in their retro builds. it's neat , but compatibility wise can't accept anything that isn't a PD so basically all software on cd.

I've tried my best to eliminate all drives that use moving parts in my retro builds , replace cd drives with usb drives or just emulate the cd drive through software and have it run iso files.

i saw, still kinda does not satisfy my curio 😀
was it expensive? i guess the media was? also you need to put a cd in such a box in order to read it? whats the access/read speed? is it a simple ide device? what does it sound like?
aslo can you get new media for this?

They read CD's straight up without any problems or mods on my end.

well in that case to answer your question , no I imagine nobody has one in their retro pc.

as far as you being the only one here that has that drive. no way. One thing I learned here is every single one of us is a hoarder and SOMEBODY also has any bit of tech you may own. I wouldn't be surprised if someone here had a legit apple 1.

emosun wrote:

well in that case to answer your question , no I imagine nobody has one in their retro pc.

as far as you being the only one here that has that drive. no way. One thing I learned here is every single one of us is a hoarder and SOMEBODY also has any bit of tech you may own. I wouldn't be surprised if someone here had a legit apple 1.

Hey! Who are you calling a hoarder??

(ok....maybe i am, don't tell anybody)

mrau wrote:

i saw, still kinda does not satisfy my curio 😀
was it expensive? i guess the media was? also you need to put a cd in such a box in order to read it? whats the access/read speed? is it a simple ide device? what does it sound like?
aslo can you get new media for this?

I'll get photos soon.
No it was not expensive, there are a lot of external ones on eBay for 20-30$.
No they read cds stright up.
Don't know I'll test it.
Yes there ide.
Kind of like a floppy drive crossed with a hdd.
No, and good luck finding old media. I got 6 or 7 diskes with mine.

The cool thing about them is that they work like a flash drive. Put a disk in and you can add/remove files just like a flash drive.

Will get photos on the drive soon

its almost a pity this did not catch on, ill bet this would prove a more solid medium than cds

I remember when I was in middle school the shool server had one of those drives and I always wanted one and I haven't seen another once since.

emosun wrote:

I can't imagine most people would still use these over a cd drive in their retro builds. it's neat , but compatibility wise can't accept anything that isn't a PD so basically all software on cd.

I've tried my best to eliminate all drives that use moving parts in my retro builds , replace cd drives with usb drives or just emulate the cd drive through software and have it run iso files.

booo. original parts are the best. go original, or go home.

It was not fun useing it with cds until I found out there was a certain way you were to put them in the drive.

No, you're not.
The high-end Compaq DeskPro XL models seemed to have them as stock, instead of a regular CD-ROM player. So my Pentium Pro 200 (XL6200) has one. It came with a caddy for it, so I can also use regular CDs easily.
Looks sorta like this one:

I guess you don't have that, which makes it difficult to get CDs in the right place. Wouldn't work with my DeskPro, because I usually have it sideways, like a tower (it came with a special stand for that).

My 486DX2-66 DeskPro (XL466) doesn't, it came with a regular CD-ROM drive.

Ampera wrote:

booo. original parts are the best. go original, or go home.

or go on ebay and find replacement rubber bands , whichever comes first 🤣

I never once in my life needed to buy new belts for a cd drive.

I do not have a PD drive any longer (but I did use them back in the late 90s).. but I do use the later version DVD-RAM drives fairly often.