Portable CD-Writer, a perfect accessory

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): I've always recommended reformatting the entire hard disk and reinstalling everything -- Windows, antivirus utilities, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, etc. -- when your system has become so messy that it has slowed down considerably.

A reader of this column was shocked at this recommendation and commented, "You're no better than the PC technician that came to our office recently and wiped out all the data on our secretary's hard disk."

Well, at least I would have first backed up all the data, addresses, e-mail messages and all other important stuff. One thing is for certain, I don't have the expertise yet to go through and fix Windows' Registry, nor do I have the time for any trial and error adventures, although it would promise a lot of fun, I must say.

Sure, installing everything takes a lot of time. Still, I don't have to sit in front of the monitor the whole time. When the setup program is copying the files to the hard disk, for example, I can continue working on my other PC.

If you have a branded PC, it usually comes with a recovery CD that will restore the entire content of your hard disk exactly as it was when it left the factory. The problem is, each time you use this CD, you will have to reinstall all the applications, set up your dial-up networking parameters again, restore your important data and repeat all the chores.

But now all these troubles are over; that is, if you have one of the latest CD-Writers from Hewlett-Packard (HP). What you will have to do is start from a clean system, install Windows, install all your applications, download the latest drivers and software patches from the Internet, restore essential data, including the names and addresses of your correspondents, make sure that the system is running in its peak performance and then create your very own recovery CD.

HP calls this utility Disaster Recovery. With the tool, you can create a CD that will restore everything onto your hard disk, including the setting of your display, the addresses of your SMTP server, etc. The utility will also create a boot diskette that makes sure the CD-Writer will be recognized when you boot your system from the diskette.

The Disaster Recovery CD is just one of the great features that really impress me about the new line of CD-Writers from Hewlett-Packard. Others include Corel Print Office, which allows you to create snazzy printed materials such as brochures and newsletters, Sonic Foundry ACID Music which enables you to create your own music using music loops and to even record your own voice, and Brotherbund PrintShop Multimedia Organizer. HP also works closely with Adaptec, the industry leader in SCSI and CD- writing utilities.

Portable, too

Courtesy of PT Hewlett-Packard Indonesia, I was also able to test drive their most interesting CD-Writer product, the HP Plus M820e. This portable CD-Writer, which will go nicely with your notebook, is unique because it looks so much like a Sony Discman.

I was told that the next generation might be able to play audio CDs like a Discman and may even be able to play MP3 music! The device is light at 450 grams, but it is quite strongly built. Like a conventional CD-ROM drive, it does not have too many buttons because most operations are controlled by the host notebook or PC.

To connect it to the notebook, HP includes a SCSI 2 PC card adapter. At first, my Siemens SCENIC Mobile 300 notebook did not recognize the SCSI card, but then I realized it was because the PC card was set for the 32-bit Cardbus technology. Using a switch on the card I was able to change it to the conventional 16-bit mode. The notebook recognized it right away and the SCSI card worked flawlessly.

Unfortunately, the Adaptec software that came with it required 32 MB of RAM. My notebook only had 16 MB on it, so I wasn't able to really test the CD-Writer on a notebook. However, as I wrote in my article three weeks ago, I bought an SCSI cable and tested the unit on my desktop Compaq Presario 4540. The PC had 48 MB of RAM and an AdvanSys AdvanSCSI PCI card. It worked without a glitch. HP Plus M820e became drive D:, and my NEC four CD drive became drives E:, F:, G: and H:.

The M820e is a four-in-one unit. It reads audio CDs, although you control is through the PC. It reads CD-ROMs at 20x (read: 20 speed). It writes to a CD-R, a write-once CD at 4x and it writes and rewrites to a rewritable CD (CD-RW) at 4x. The cost of a blank CD-R, which you can only use once to store your data but read as many times as you wish, is US$1 to $2.

You can buy a blank CD-RW, which you can use like a floppy diskette -- to write, erase, format and rewrite -- up to a thousand times, from only $5 to $8. Unlike floppy diskettes, which tend to get corrosive and are plagued with mold in our humid climate, the CD-ROM's only enemy is a wide and deep scratch.

Like a floppy

Using the CD-R is straightforward. You can copy a CD directly to another and use the copy in any CD-ROM drive. You can even copy a compact disc that you can play on your home stereo CD player. Here the decision to honor the artists' rights is left entirely to you as the user. You can also use the CD-R in increments, adding more data when necessary in multiple recording sessions. The only thing is you cannot erase whatever you've written on it.

The CD-RW is more interesting and more flexible. There are two ways we can use it. With DirectCD, I need to first format the CD- RW platter first. The process takes between 30 and 90 minutes. In my test it took 30 minutes, but reformatting will take longer. However, as Abigail Toh from HP Storage Group told me, we can start copying files onto the CD-RW after the formatting has been going on for five minutes as the formatting process can actually go on in the background.

The beauty of using DirectCD is that you can use Windows Explorer to copy and move files. I was even able to create folders (subdirectories) using the MD command in Windows' DOS. It worked so much like a floppy diskette.

When DirectCD is in use, the eject button on the unit will not work. We have to use the software eject function in order to close the CD before we can take it out. We can decide whether we would like to continue using it as a DirectCD CD-RW, which will require that the PC on which we are going to use it has a CD writer device.

If it does not, we will have to download a free utility called UDF Reader, a DirectCD which uses the UDF format, from Adaptec's site. Or, we can close the CD-RW in normal mode and it can be read on any PC with a CD-ROM drive. Remember though that in order to be able to read a CD-RW, your CD-ROM drive should be a multiread.

Hesby Lisapaly, HP's technical marketing manager, told me when I visited their Singapore office last week that virtually all new CD-ROM drives with speeds of 20x and higher would already have the multiread capability.

On the other hand, Adaptec's Easy CD Creator enables us to master a CD so that it can be played in any CD-ROM drive. UDF Reader will not be required.

Other models

I was also told that the capability to write to a DVD ROM will be coming soon, but I don't see an urgent need for it at the moment. For now, the M820e is a great product. At $399, it may be quite an investment compared to other models that are fast approaching the under $200 level, although we should take into account the costly SCSI 2 PC card adapter that comes bundled with the package.

Currently, HP offers seven different models of CD-Writers. Some are internal, others are external devices. One model uses the parallel port of your PC, while another uses the newer and more practical USB port. Two internal models use the IDE interface. The top performers in terms of reading speed are the ones that use the SCSI interface.

However, although the portable CD Writer Plus M820e turns out to be without the nifty HP Disaster Recovery capability, it is still by far my darling.