VOGONS


First post, by PaddyWi

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Hi,
I was wondering if it is possible to use a modern Blu-ray drive like the Asus BW-16D1HT (connected via SATA/IDE adapter) with DOS and/or Windows 9x/XP to read CDs and DVDs and install old games?
Of course I dont want to read or watch Blu-rays, but will CDs and DVDs file systems be accessible with such old systems and BIOSes without new drivers?

Reply 1 of 7, by Zilch

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Ermm..... I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

The drivers simply do not exist, neither for the physical drive, nor the filesystem (UDF I think).

Now, when it's done through software, such as mounting a read-only VMDK to a 9x virtual machine it'd work.

Reply 2 of 7, by Jo22

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Hi, do you mean using a SATA BD-ROM drive in place of an CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive?
If so, yes that’s possible. It's similar to an DVD-ROM drive.

It should support ATAPI and most of the previous "books" of CD/DVD standards.
An SATA - IDE converter might be needed, though..

Personally, I've used an older Blu Ray drive (with EIDE port) in an Power Mac G4 and it worked out-of-box like the original CD-ROM drive.

Also, there were DVD drivers for DOS and Windows 3.1x..
http://win31.de/edrivers.htm
http://win31.de/ewin3dvd.htm

For normal operation they're not required, though.
The normal IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drivers should work just fine.

What may not work is autonomous Audio-CD playback,
since modern optical drives nolonger have analogue or SPDIF audio out.

And for read support of Blu Ray discs, modern drivers would be required, of course.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 3 of 7, by wierd_w

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I think you would need a more modern replacement for MSCDEX to read the blueray disk's filesystem, since I dont think it is normal ISO9660+HighSierra extensions. (UDF)

This is the only part you would need to replace. A generic ATAPI CD driver should do for getting the data in and out of the drive. It's just the presentation for DOS that happens in MSCDEX that you'd need modern flavors for.

Reply 5 of 7, by wierd_w

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The equiv of DeCSS is a different kettle of fish.

Reply 6 of 7, by PaddyWi

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Yes, I mean using a SATA BD-ROM drive in place of an CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
I dont need the "Blu-ray" part of the drive. Just the CD and DVD part 😀

Reply 7 of 7, by fosterwj03

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The short answer is yes, ATAPI drivers for DOS, Windows 9x, and Windows XP will detect the drive as a standard optical drive.