Rewriting history: CD-R and CD-RW drives usher in a new era in data storage

Entrepreneur, Jan, 1999 by Jill Amadio

The 3.5-inch floppy disk has been a boon to small-business owners who need to store documents and send text presentations to prospective clients. Although creating and storing documents on 3.5-inch disks or tape backup drives has reduced the amount of paper stored in file drawers, we now have bookcases full of floppies or bulging boxes of backup tapes. They may be nearly labeled, but in today's fast-paced business climate - where you need to find archived information quickly - they're not especially efficient.

When deciding on a method of removable document storage, you should consider data protection, shelf life and cost. While floppy disks are easily interchangeable, the same isn't true of the other storage solution, tape drives, which may be incompatible with colleagues' computers. As for shelf life, tapes only last approximately seven years before deterioration sets in.

Do you need more space than what's available on a 3.5-inch floppy? And now about adding multimedia effects to your presentations? Both of these problems have been solved with the introduction of the next generation in storage devices: CD-Recordable (CD-R) and CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) drives. Introduced several years ago at a cost of between $800 and $1,000 each, they now retail for $250 to $550, with street prices usually 15 to 20 percent lower.

While the CD-ROMs on which most of today's computer software is written were the answer for software producers, the cost to record on, or "burn," a CD remained prohibitive to the average consumer. Innovative manufacturers eager to explore an emerging market developed new CD technology that has resulted in low-cost CD-R/CD-RW drives whose reusable disks store vast amounts of data.

Most of the new disks are compatible with CD-ROM drives, and some are compatible with digital video disk (DVD)-ROM drives. Recordable DVD solutions, such as DVD-RAM and DVD RW, hold 2.6GB and up. DVDs are still in their infancy for the consumer market, however, and aren't expected to become a major player just yet.

"CD-R drives enable you to store 650MB of data [compared to 1.44MB on a floppy and 100MB to 1GB on tape] and make copies for others to share," says Scott Elrich, product development marketing manager for TEAC's data storage products division. "You can read, write, erase and rewrite data, photos and graphics to a CD-RW a thousand times, which is useful for maintaining client records or sending regularly updated CDs to anyone with a CD-ROM drive."

Compatible with almost every type of computer, the new disks' average shelf life is estimated at 50 years, while platinum disks from Ricoh claim an archival life of 200 years. One of the biggest benefits is that the disks can back up your entire hard drive - so if your computer crashes, not only are your documents saved, but so are the customized configurations of your operating system.

Perhaps the best news about the new drives is their price. Disks for a CD-R drive cost between $2 and $5 each, while CD-RW disks range from $10 to $15 each. To match the archive space on one CD-R disk, you'd have to buy 450 high-density floppies, which would cost you around $100.

There are a few drawbacks to these new drives, however. Formatting a CD-RW can take as long as an hour. Preformatted CDs are available, but the formatting adds $5 or more to the price of each disk and can be inadvertently erased. Also, if you want to read a CD-RW disk on your CD-ROM drive, most disks require your drive to have a program called MultiRead.

CD-R/CD-RW drives are available both as internal and external units, which is handy for mobile notebook users. There are many different models, from basic to top-of-the-line, with correspondingly ascending price tags. Our chart shows a selection of some of the drives now available.

There are only a few manufacturers that produce the basic CD-R/CD-RW drives. They do, however, supply them to many other companies, which add their own technology, stamp their brand name on the products and resell them. Our chart shows most of the manufacturers; others not listed include Mitsumi, NEC, Smart & Friendly and Traxdata.

If you're not familiar with CD-R/CD-RW drives, here are some terms you'll encounter in your search for the best option for your business:

Burn: A buzzword for recording data to a CD-R/CD-RW disk.

Firmware. An enhancement code that holds a program (similar to a chip) which writes data to the hard drive and allows easy upgrades. It's often used for audio applications.

Packet writing: A process that allows users to drag and drop groups or packets of documents or graphics without interrupting the transfer of data.

Premastering: Formatting a CD-R/CD-RW disk with premastering software.

X speeds: Standard CD-ROM drive speeds, which are measured in units of 150 kilobytes per second; thus, 2X would be twice the standard speed, or 300 Kbps. A 4X12 drive writes at four times the standard speed and reads at 12 times the standard speed.

When shopping for a CD-R/CD-RW drive, follow Elrich's suggestions: