SPONSORED LINKS
>Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 20:29:49 +0000 >From: christij@unix.asb.com (Joseph Christie) >Subject: Queston abt 760 and floppy/cd setup > >I'm looking into a new thinkpad and the 760 sure looks good (undecided between >X and E lines). I saw the floppy/cd on the 380 an am wondering about the setup >on the 760. I teach and am constantly blowing away and reinstalling different >OS's on my computers. Is it possible with the 760 to use the cd and sloppy at >the same time and would I have to buy anything extra to do this if it is in >fact possible? Another more flexible approach is to acquire a new/used Adaptec SlimSCSI PCMCIA card, an external dual height powered SCSI box, install a SCSI CDROM in the box, and maybe put a CD-R recorder in the second bay of the dual height box. If you really need a portable CD-ROM then the IBM CD-ROM and external floppy cable & drive arrangement work well enough. But, if you really want to frequently load up alternative operating systems, work with some educational CD-ROMs at home/office, or author/review new CD-ROMs for your own personal/business use then the external CD-ROM box is a good investment. Moreover, when authoring multiple CD-ROM projects, it is often helpful to be able to insert a hard drive in both drive bays of the Thinkpad 760 (one for software/op sys and one for scratch to acquire video/audio, generate compressed MPEGs, assemble files for your CD-R, build virtual CD-R images, and burn multiple CD-Rs from virtual images). The external CD-ROM and CD-R drive SCSI box is also useful when you need to build new operating systems on other PCMCIA systems -- just plug your PCMCIA card into the new system, hook the SCSI dual CD-ROM/CD-R box to the chain, insert your active terminator at the end of the chain, and install whatever software you need on the new system. Acquiring an Adaptec SlimSCSI also facilitates backup of your Thinkpad 760 system, scratch disks, and CD-ROM projects to any company or privately owned 4mm DAT, 8mm Exabyte, or alternative inexpensive high capacity backup media. I personally own a used HP SureStore 6000e tape drive which is just perfect for backing up current generation 1-3 gigabyte hard drives. It also makes great media for sending tracks to CD-ROM master and duplication houses. The CD-R and 4mm DAT is also wonderful data interchange media for sending reasonable volumes of data (3D MRI/PET images etc) to remote colleagues. CD-R is particularly attractive for small volumes of data (up to 650 MB) because it can be shipped through the mail with no concern for damage from magnetic fields in industrial/biomedical imaging facilities or in x-ray systems. Rough costs -- used SCSI CD-ROM drive $100 (Toshiba XM-3401B), new/grey market SCSI CD-R drive $300 (Phillips CDD2000 which is accompanied by Corel CD Creator Version 2 software [excellent]), used Adaptec SlimSCSI $100 (including Adaptec EZ SCSI 3 and/or 4 drivers and backup software), used HP6000e $300, new CD-R media $3 per 650-700 MB platter, and used 90M DAT tapes (used once) $2. Also, new Panasonic DVD-ROM drives just hit the retail INTERNET marketplace at $300 each. Thinkpad 760's with MPEG-2 capability are said to be easily upgraded to SCSI DVD-ROM playback using one of the Panasonic SCSI DVD-ROM drives in an external box. I would be interested in whether anyone else has used this combination on a Thinkpad 760 (particularly on a Thinkpad 760CD). Alexander J. Annala, PhD, MSc, MIS Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow Imaging Sciences Division Crump Institute for Biological Imaging University of California--Los Angeles