topic Re: CD-ROM DRIVE in Operating System - Linux

CD-ROM DRIVE

John Sharpley — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 08:40:20 GMT

Hi can anyone please give advise on what CD ROM drive I should fit to my Media Centre M7000 computer. The computer only came with the Lightscribe dvd drive and I would like to fit the additional CD ROM drive. also would i need to download any software to make it work.
My O/S is Ubuntu 10.10.
Any information such as make model would helpful.
take Care John

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

Steven Schweda — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 16:40:59 GMT

> [...] I would like to fit the additional CD
> ROM drive. [...]

Why? A real CD-ROM drive, not a modern
CD/DVD drive? Why? Is there some actual
problem which you are trying to solve? (Is
it a secret?)

> Any information such as make model would
> helpful.

Any information on what you're trying to do
might be helpful, too. There must be close
to a zillion different drives out there.
Almost anything which has the features you
want and an interface to which you can
connect would probably work. What's wrong
with the (unidentified) drive that's in there
already?

> [...] would i need to download any software
> [...]

Seems unlikely, at least if the new drive
isn't vastly different from (superior to) the
old one.

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

John Sharpley — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:05:38 GMT

Hi Sorry but I must have confused you.
I have a HP Media Centre M7000 purchased in 2005. It came with a Lightscribe DVD RW and has a additional slot for a CD Rom which was never fitted by HP. All the connections are there and all I THINK I have to do is Purchase a CD ROM Drive and fit it in. My Problem is I do NOT know which one to buy. as I do not have an old one. I have tried to find what optional CD Rom HP would have supplied for my computer but but I cannot find any reference on the web site. as you say there many hundreds out there,but which one is suitable. Hope this makes sense to you.
Thanks for you reply John

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

Steven Schweda — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:34:29 GMT

> [...] all I THINK I have to do is Purchase
> a CD ROM Drive and fit it in. [...]

Why, exactly, do you want to do this? What
would this new CD-ROM drive be able to do,
which the existing optical drive can't do?
Are you interested in replacing a blank panel
with something else which has blinking lights
and moving parts, or is there some actual
task which you are currently unable to
perform with the hardware you already have?

> [...] Is there some actual
> problem which you are trying to solve? (Is
> it a secret?)

Still wondering.

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

John Sharpley — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:31:30 GMT

Again thanks for your reply, I do not think you are getting my point. I require a CD Rom as well as the DVD RW I already have. The reasons are that HP would not have put a spare bay if it were not for people like me requiring the facility to have the extra capability that this would bring. If I wish to to copy a DVD or a CD I have first to save to the hard drive then copy to CD or DVD.The information I need is The CD DRIVE, make and model number that HP would have supplied back in 2005 when I purchased my computer.
Hope you now might be able to help me Regards John

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

Steven Schweda — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 04:23:26 GMT

> [...] If I wish to to copy a DVD or a CD I
> have first to save to the hard drive then
> copy to CD or DVD. [...]

I don't wish to make trouble, but I suspect
that any CD/DVD-writing software which you
can find will be happier if you or it does
exactly that, regardless of how many optical
drives you might have. I/O with a hard drive
is normally faster and more reliable than
with an optical drive, so it's generally
safer to have a hard drive feeding an optical
drive than it is to have one optical drive
feeding another. It's not impossible to make
a copy from one optical drive to another, but
it may be less commonly done than you think
it is. (Or I could be wrong, and it's more
commonly done than I think it is. But I
doubt it.)

> The information I need is The CD DRIVE,
> make and model number that HP would have
> supplied back in 2005 when I purchased my
> computer.

What you need and what you want may be
entirely different things.

Considering that practically any modern
DVD-writing drive can also read or write a
CD, I don't understand why you would insist
on trying to add an old CD-ROM (or even an
old CD-writing) drive instead of a modern
DVD-writing drive, which should be superior
in every practical way.

> [...] HP would not have put a spare bay
> [...]

Your psychic powers may be superior to mine,
but I doubt that the goal of the designers
was to leave room for a CD-only optical
drive. More likely, it was to leave room to
add a DVD-ROM or DVD-writing drive if the
system was originally configured with some
less capable drive, like, say, a CD-ROM
drive.

Also, the life cycle of a typical optical
drive is less than five years, so it's not
very likely that any drive which HP would
have specified for this system is still in
production or even widely available. For a
CD-only drive, the chances would be even
slimmer.

If you really want to add an optical drive
to fill that spare bay, then your best bet
would probably be find someone local who
knows something, and get some help. For
example, take this box to your local computer
store, and ask a technician which DVD-writing
drive(s) would be suitable.

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

Michael Sillers — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 15:54:51 GMT

I don't know what all the controversy is about but if you want to add an additional CD drive, I would suggest any current IDE drive would suffice. It would likely be some kind of CD/DVD writer and would give better performance and reliability than the original that might have been shipped with the system. Ubuntu 10.01 should certainly have no trouble handling this.

Check out this link for instructions:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=130&prodSeriesId=437023&prodTypeId=12454&objectID=bph07164

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

John Sharpley — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:33:52 GMT

Hi Michael, At Last an answer I can understand!!. Thanks will take YOUR advice
John

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

Alan_152 — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:07:10 GMT

I have several of these Media Centers in my lab, and the installed optical drives can read and write both CDs and DVDs.

But, if you need a 2nd drive for whatever reason, I'd recommend installing this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136144 . It is cheap, dependable, and uses the SATA connections that the MC7000 is equipped with.

Re: CD-ROM DRIVE

Steven Schweda — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:55:50 GMT

> [...] and uses the SATA connections that
> the MC7000 is equipped with.

I thought that having someone with some basic
knowledge look at the system to see which
interfaces and cables existed made some
sense, but apparently, that wasn't an
important consideration. And this fellow's
profile says "Country / Region: spain", so I
figured that a Spain-local source might work
better than any one I know. But, apparently,
I'm incomprehensible.