PC Peripherals External USB 2.0 Combo Drive/DVDROM

[vinitwins]

i'm fracking tired of starfrack clones, and the associated sfcure/sfn keedas to get any new game to work.

any idea on the price/availability of external usb-based combo drives in india - a simple dvd reader or a combo solution (dvdrom/cdrw)?

best,
vinit

 

[Eazy]

any idea on the price/availability of external usb-based combo drives in india - a simple dvd reader or a combo solution (dvdrom/cdrw)?

Just get a USB 2 IDE cable and attach any Optical drive to it. Cost of these cables are around Rs 450 - 650 at Lamington Road.

 

[vinitwins]

Just get a USB 2 IDE cable and attach any Optical drive to it. Cost of these cables are around Rs 450 - 650 at Lamington Road.

would you need to get some sort of casing/housing for the optical drive as well? something that includes a AC-DC power converter OR do you have to power the drive via a separate SMPS?

/rambling mode on

also how reliable are these IDE-2-USB cables? do they need some proprietary drivers? 'coz the new DT4 uses an alternative ATAPI layer, SPTD or some frack like that - known to cause major USB compatibility headaches... and of course then there's the issue with Starfracks file system protection (apart from its infamous SCSI miniport blacklists) - basically if this cable doesn't emulate the IDE drive as a true USB device, i.e. if it uses any software wrappers or even any resident/remnant drivers (when the drive is unplugged), i'm quite sure it won't do the intended job...

/rambling mode off

 

[Eazy]

would you need to get some sort of casing/housing for the optical drive as well? something that includes a AC-DC power converter OR do you have to power the drive via a separate SMPS?

/rambling mode on

also how reliable are these IDE-2-USB cables? do they need some proprietary drivers? 'coz the new DT4 uses an alternative ATAPI layer, SPTD or some frack like that - known to cause major USB compatibility headaches... and of course then there's the issue with Starfracks file system protection (apart from its infamous SCSI miniport blacklists) - basically if this cable doesn't emulate the IDE drive as a true USB device, i.e. if it uses any software wrappers or even any resident/remnant drivers (when the drive is unplugged), i'm quite sure it won't do the intended job...

/rambling mode off

Check out review on the cable from link - I bought the same one from PC Guide at Lamington road for 650/- - it comes with a Power supply and the readings I got with my DMM were very close to a perfect 12.00 and 5.00....

http://www.dansdata.com/rdriver.htm

I used this cable with an ASUS DVD ROM and booted the XP install CD off it and it was ready to install with no special drivers. I have attached a 2.5" USB HDD and have booted into Win98SE using this cable. This cable handles 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs as well as Optical drives.

The cable requires no drivers in Windows XP or DOS. A CD was supplied with drivers for Win98 but I have this OS running off it and I did install any drivers.

 

[vinitwins]

Check out review on the cable from link - I bought the same one from PC Guide at Lamington road for 650/- - it comes with a Power supply and the readings I got with my DMM were very close to a perfect 12.00 and 5.00....

http://www.dansdata.com/rdriver.htm

I used this cable with an ASUS DVD ROM and booted the XP install CD off it and it was ready to install with no special drivers. I have attached a 2.5" USB HDD and have booted into Win98SE using this cable. This cable handles 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs as well as Optical drives.

The cable requires no drivers in Windows XP or DOS. A CD was supplied with drivers for Win98 but I have this OS running off it and I did install any drivers.

sounds great and a little googling seems to confirm that it can be a viable workaround for playing protected games - at least for current copy protections (SR7/SD4/SF3.5) along with DT4 + No IDE optical drives + No other virtual drive software on your system... now how about posting the contact details of the place where you bought your cable?

 

[Eazy]

the contact details of the place where you bought your cable?

PC Guide
366 Lamington Road
Ahmed Mansion
Chunam Lane
Phone 5636 6105

The cable came in a Blue Colour box with a name "R-Driver 11"

 

[vinitwins]

@Eazy - did you have any trouble using the IDE2USB cable with your optical drives - burning / reading speeds, etc?

 

[Eazy]

@Eazy - did you have any trouble using the IDE2USB cable with your optical drives - burning / reading speeds, etc?

I only attached a DVD ROM drive to the cable - but I rememeber reading in a review somewhere that this cable handles DVD burning but at a slower speed - does Dandata mention this limitation in their review ? I have attached a 20gb 2.5" Seagate drive and have left it at that.

Check last post in this thread
http://www.techenclave.com/forums/usb-2-0-external-hdd-65119.html
friedclyde mentions today that the price quoted to him now for this cable is 550/-.