A few things about CD-RW drives
This is a brief page about a few issues with CD Rewriteable drive types and
Windows. The Windows Operating system has two more or less different standards
used in CD Rewriteable drives. One is widely used by many makers in the CDRW
format on Windows 95/98/ME the other however appears to be used by Windows NT
type products that include Windows 2000 Professional ( Windows NT5). This can
result in CD Rewriteable media not being readable from Windows 9x versions on
Windows NT type versions. Below is the Adaptec drivers recommended as far as I
can determine for use with Windows 2000/NT type products with CDRW drives.
It should also be mentioned that CD Rewriteable drives as do CD Rom drives and
hard drives come in other type interfaces in hardware than the IDE type. The
one typically seen is SCSI types and they are widely used on Apple machines but
also used in servers and very high end personal systems. Some older PCs also
used the SCSI drive interface on CD Rom drives and CDRW drives. This needs to
be keep in mind when ordering and selecting software for use with your CD
Drive. In some cases problems can arise as a result of this but more often
what happens is someone is not aware of the fact that a given drive is a SCSI
type and attempts replacement with an IDE type. They do not use the same
interface, and even though the cable connections may look the same it is not
going to work if the controller on the motherboard or on the computer, is not
the same as the drive type. IDE controllers do not control SCSI type drives,
and SCSI type controllers will not control IDE type drives. So if you are
considering a replacement or upgrade to a CD Rewriteable drive, check the
controller used on your system before you purchase or attempt to install a
drive.
The connection of an SCSI to IDE may result in hardware failures.
The files in this zip are the files I got from Adaptec's site on 7-30-2001 and
have not been changed.
Even so feel free to virus scan them. I would if I got them this way, but be
sure you use the current
antivirus software or scanning them means little, and have associated the zip
program and the virus
scanner so they can use each other.
Ok, unzip the contents of the zip with
Winzip
or program along the same lines. You should place the contents into a new
folder or empty folder to keep from getting confused and also recall where you
placed them. The file names contained in the zip are, ASPICHK.EXE, ( the test
routine to see if you have the correct DLL files installed ) ASPIDLL.ZIP (
the basic DLL file needed to even install the basic DLLs here ) and ASPI32.EXE
the installer for the other DLLs required from Adaptec.
Start up the ASPICHK.EXE program which should test your system for the files
shown below. If they are there, you need do no more.
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If you have other results ( missing files ) you will need to install the DLL
contained in the zip file (ASPIDLL.ZIP) in the C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 folder. Then
once you do you can run the ASPI32.EXE and the program should obtain the newest
version of the required DLL files and install them. ( this may require a
connection to the Internet be open and available. ) Then re-run the
ASPICHK.EXE to confirm the results. You should have simular results to the
ones shown in the JPG image above.
As I said these are the same files I used. I have no virus alerts and I use
very current antivirus software. The files are supposed to fix the problem of
access to a CD RW media on Windows 2000. I do not believe this will have much
results for those CDs that you already have installed, but you may find that CD
media after you install this will work at that point. I have yet to test this
full and the
www.fadden.com
website has far more information about this than I can place here. The
suggestion was made to me by Sony Support when I questioned them about the use
of one of their CD-RW Recorders ( CRX140E/CH2 ) with the Windows 2000 operating
system when the abCD software refused to install under Windows 2000.
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