A few months ago there was a thread about the best medium for storing the huge megabytes of 3D files that we all seem to amass. A lot of people were in favour of CD writers, but I was a little bit anti, because of the high failure rate I'd experienced with my CD writer. Instead I kept all my stuff on zip disks. Well, I've changed my mind. I finally bit the bullet, chucked my HP CD writer in the bin (metaphorically at least) and bought myself a brand spanking new Mitsumi CDRW drive with a USB interface. It's terrific. It's fast and so far works every time. Also, by opting for the compressed packet format I can get 1.28MB on each CD. It also does CDRWs as well though I haven't tried that yet. The USB interface is terrific because I already had 4 IDE drives and didn't want to have to buy a SCSI card, a) because of the expense, b) because of compatibility problems with all the other hardware I've got hanging off my machine and c) because I was running out of slots to put cards in. I'd better add that I'm in no way connected with Mitsumi, in fact I'd never heard of them a fortnight ago. One downside is the documentation. Firstly it says that the serial number is in the manual or on the recorder. Wrong! - it's on the flimsy paper wrapper that the installation CD comes in. Secondly, it seems to have been translated from Japanese to German to English and then to the other languages and some things go wrong. But I'll forgive them that.

That was the thread I started and I'm glad you revisited it. I'm just about ready to buy a CD-RW and would love to hear about others. I would really really like a USB but I'm still using Win95, really need to store stuff (Poser and Bryce, etc.-plus other things) on the CD's before a complete reformat and installation of Win98, but USB is totally unstable (I understand) on Win95--so, I'm sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place. I do have a Zip disk, but hate to buy any more disks. I have to think about this. I looked at an HP USB CD-RW this past weekend at Circuit City but know its always best to look around, do a little more research and check all the sites on the web (I got a wonderful price on my Wacom Intuos last Feb. on buy.com after checking out many, many sites). picnic

I'm normally pretty mean with my money but this time I looked around a bit at all the mail order options, of which there weren't all that many for USB, but in the end opted to pay a little over the odds and bought from a shop I could take it back to if it ever goes wrong. You're right about Win 95/98. The Mitsumi manual says you should only use W98, though in some places it implies it will work with W95 but they won't guarantee it. Do you really need to do a reformat for W98? Surely it will just change the operating system and leave everything else untouched.

heya; if you're a real geek, you can check pricewatch.com for the lowest low prices on anything. sometimes they are discounted only for pricewatch.com users. (no, you dont have to sign up to use it.) i got a creative labs cd-rw; it seems to work fine; havent burned a lot of stuff yet. (well, i have, but havent tried to read it back ;) ) i kinda like the idea of magnet-proof and static-proof media for stuff. and cds are cheaper than zip disks. maz: what compression thingy do you have? was it an app that came with your burner?

Ah... something I can finally help with. ::puts on a lab coat with a name tag on it that says "Hi I am Jack can I help you?":: Okay, I operate Microcrap's Win95 and it does indeed support USB technology, as long as you have Version B of the 95 software. I have had very little or no trouble at all usin USB technology. I use it for my MediaMASTER CD-RW and for my cablemodem (Playing with Power LOL) The Matsumi is a splendid machine and heard that it doesn't suffer the hickups that others (like MediaMaster ) suffers from, such as loss of information. As for upgrading to Win98, you do not have to reformat you system while upgrading. It will NOT write over information that you already have on your hard drive and will also give you the ablity to remove it from your system and return you to Win95 should you wish to remove it from your system.... ...which I did... MicroCrap Win98 is just that, crap. I had more problems running it on my 400 p2 than I would care to bore you with. However, Windows 2000 should be released in the beginning of next year and after having run the beta of it on my system, I found that I like this better than Win95. It is much faster, better organized. I only hope that its bugs will be taken care of ahead of time not after the release of it. Only time will tell.... I hope that this has helped some... Jack

Bloodsong, Yes, you guessed right, the compression thingy came with the Matsumi. It doesn't seem to have a name, it's just a tick box for compressed or not when creating a CD in packet format. However, that makes the resulting disk incompatible with any other manufacturer. Without the compression it should be readable by anything else. The software maker is called CeQuadrat. They're sure to have a website somewhere.

Jack, Don't know if this is the place for it, but I need to ask someone much more knowledgeable than me about this. I have 'conflicts' in my Win95-that's the reason I was planning a reformat. When I got my 'new' Gateway 2 years ago, it came with version B (I'm pretty sure) of Win95. My computer guru was helping me in setup/transfer of files and insisted we needed to install IE since we didn't find an IE file--DUH!!!-it's included in Win95/B and we both missed the splash window that says Win95 with IE or some such (we were both used to older Win 95 version with separate folder for IE). Anyhow, made a royal mess-uninstalled IE, etc. with no luck AT ALL and I've never been able to use MS mail or news--always says its 'in use'. I dled Free Agent and Eudora (which I used before) and use them just fine-plus have Netscape 4.6 and old version of IE 3.12 on machine. I've never been able to install IE4--and tried from a variety of sources. I'd love to think I could just install the upgrade, but a lot of folks have told me that I'll have problems. I have many, MANY apps on this computer plus kind of normal hardware (with drivers) like Umax scanner, HP printer, Wacom tablet, internal Zip drive so it would be super if I could just upgrade. continued below

continued from above It appears I have to buy my upgrade from Gateway to keep my warranty in effect for one more year, so.... My major reason for wanting to upgrade IS to be able to buy a USB external CD RW (and install IE4 or 5). Any help would be appreciated--all this is precipitated by my graphics storage problem, of course, like everyone else. I know this is WAY off topic-I'll take it any place that you deem to be the right place --or off line. Oh, one more STUPID question--My Win version says 4.00.950 B--this is the B or 2nd version, isn't it?? Thanks so much all--Jack, thanks for putting on your 'name tag', Diane (I wonder if I'll find a Matsumi anywhere in this area-Best Buy and Circuit City are my only resources unless I go to the big city of Charlotte-which I'm willing to do--or look for it online. Does this appear to be everyone else's choice for USB? I've looked for a USB CD-R for about 3 months and the HP at CC was the first I'd seen).

Hmmm... Diane, what you ask is a little out of my league, in regards to a deletion of IE 4 I have some ideas, but would like to speak with one of my friends who worked with me at Computer Shity...Err...City As soon as I get word from him, I will let you know dear. But yes, I prefer USB much faster and reliable. Lord knows, FireWire when it comes out will blow USB out of the water!! Jack

Diane, 4.00.950 B is the B version.... I think Microslap has an update on their site for both the USB and the IExplorer... you might try IE5... slightly bettre... at least security and cookie wise.... The big thing is the processor you're running.. and the amount of memory..... CD/R is the way to go..... you cen even do an open session so you can add to it later.... closing it when you're done... neat ne? ) Thom "KnightTech"