Looking for cdrom drive with caddy

[Clarity]

I've got a client who has an old cdrom drive with caddies and need to
replace it. It is in use in an auto repair shop so caddies work very well
to protect the cd's from a really hostile environment, i.e. dirty hands,
garage doors open, etc. The drive in there now is an old ide but now
broken. I'm having a hell of a time finding a replacement. Thinking I'm
needing to go with a scsi drive and scsi controller.
Would this be a good way to go? Any ideas would be apprciated and where
might there be a good inexpensive model and vendor?
Thanks much.

[Graham Mayor]

There are not many manufacturers who still have available caddy mounted
discs, and I have not seen any that are IDE. A SCSI drive (Plextor) should
not frighten the horses and you don't need anything special in the way of
SCSI cards to fire it up. If you search at google for - Plextor CDR caddy -
you should quickly find a supplier close to you. For the card, the Tekram
DC-315U SCSI 2 will do the job for not much money.

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Graham Mayor
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Clarity wrote: I've got a client who has an old cdrom drive with caddies and need to replace it. It is in use in an auto repair shop so caddies work very well to protect the cd's from a really hostile environment, i.e. dirty hands, garage doors open, etc. The drive in there now is an old ide but now broken. I'm having a hell of a time finding a replacement. Thinking I'm needing to go with a scsi drive and scsi controller. Would this be a good way to go? Any ideas would be appreciated and where might there be a good inexpensive model and vendor? Thanks much.

[Mike Richter]

Clarity wrote: I've got a client who has an old cdrom drive with caddies and need to replace it. It is in use in an auto repair shop so caddies work very well to protect the cd's from a really hostile environment, i.e. dirty hands, garage doors open, etc. The drive in there now is an old ide but now broken. I'm having a hell of a time finding a replacement. Thinking I'm needing to go with a scsi drive and scsi controller. Would this be a good way to go? Any ideas would be apprciated and where might there be a good inexpensive model and vendor? Thanks much.

I also am a great fan of caddy drives and am frustrated that they are no
longer in production. Check at Plextor for an Ultraplex 17 CD-ROM drive
and/or a Plexwriter 412. Both are SCSI but an inexpensive adapter will
do the job for either. I bought a Plexwriter 412 reconditioned from them
a year or two ago for a low price; it's still working fine.

Mike
--
mrichter@cpl.net
http://www.mrichter.com/

[df]

Clarity wrote: I've got a client who has an old cdrom drive with caddies and need to replace it. It is in use in an auto repair shop so caddies work very well to protect the cd's from a really hostile environment, i.e. dirty hands, garage doors open, etc. The drive in there now is an old ide but now broken. I'm having a hell of a time finding a replacement. Thinking I'm needing to go with a scsi drive and scsi controller. Would this be a good way to go? Any ideas would be apprciated and where might there be a good inexpensive model and vendor? Thanks much.

There are a few more options
One that is not quite as direct and will entail additional cost is going to a M.O drive. It requires cost of media and time to copy, but it does ensure the media is protected.
Another option depending on the number of CDs involved is to look for a CD tower or juke box or a changer. Changers were popular for a while, but they are getting more dificult to find.