can I burn 3" disks with ECDC 5?

[Richard Fdisk.exe]

not much more to add than that?

 

can I burn 3" disks with it

 

I see the indentations in the drive trays for them but will ECDC 5 just run off the end and not tell me if the files are too big for the disk

 

basically what I need to do is occasionally my boss or some one else will send a note to get something off of the "file server" or hand me a USB chip drive and say I need these on CD but usually the total data amounts to using less than 10% of the CD

 

and sometimes I get asked for Audio and usually I get handed 1 or 2 short tracks which again uses less than 10% of the CD

 

so it would be handier to just throw it onto a 3" and not bother wasting my CD's for 1 - 2 audio track(s) or 20MB of data

 

anyone tried them before.

I don't want to go and buy them only to get them and they don't work

 

I also have EMC9 @ home and

Creator LE Dell edition on the notebook machine.

(it looks like it might be based on EMC8.x? can't tell for sure

it sorta looks like 9 but not exactly there are some minor and

major diffs. in appearance and function.)

 

 

any help would be appreciated.

( I did try "search" but didn't get anything. )

cheers

«►RfD◄»

[Brendon]

Hi Richard,

 

ECDC 5 will burn a 3" disc [i've done it], but why would you want to?

 

It won't warn you if you are sending too many data to the disc, so it is up to you to manage the data you send to it. If you recall, the project size bar at the bottom of an ECDC 5 project has marks at 74 minutes and 80 minutes. It tells you the size of your project and the estimated free space on a 74 min or an 80 min CD, but that's all it does. It will give you estimates, but you have to manage the data.

 

A 3" disc tells me that it handles 34 minutes or 300MB of data. ECDC 5's Disc Information says about the same

 

 

so it's up to you to keep the data level below the capacity of the mini-CD or a little less than 300 MB. I wouldn't push it to the very limit, since I have known ECDC 5 to turn out coasters when I pushed it to the last MB or two.

 

Having said all that, when I was buying Mini-CDs their cost was much higher than a regular CD. At the moment I can't find any in town, but their list price is significantly higher than regular discs.

 

I can't see any practical advantage in burning a dataset of less than 300MB to a mini-CD that costs a lot more than a regular one and is much more difficult to obtain. Sure, it gives you a dinky little disc in a dinky little jewelcase which you can carry in your dinky shirt pocket, but it's a waste of corporate cash. If you're the IT person there it doesn't say much for economy, and if your bosses want something they can carry in their shirt pocket, they'd be better off getting a USB flash drive - and much more fashionable.

 

However, I think you should get a few 3" discs to play with, because they are rather fun.

 

 

Regards,

Brendon

[Richard Fdisk.exe]

Thanks for the info!

 

no I'm not the I.T. person here,

If I were there'd sure be a lot of things changed

(like the file server, it's way toooo small 105GB less the space server2003 takes

right now it's got 5GB free ha! and a pile of files that haven't been opened in 4+ years)

but hey it's not my department right,

 

they do use the USB thingys but that's just so that they can bring it to me and say:

"here I need this on CD × ## copies or what ever"

or because the audio system doesn't use USB chips, only CD's / Tapes(remember those)

 

I'll be looking at what the CD supplier will ship them to us for

and if they're too outrageously priced then I'll just be ordering more of

their "generic" aka Ritek CD's @ 22¢ each

rather than wasting the 56¢ each Taiyo CD's we use for Audio

 

 

cheers

 

«►RfD◄»

[Brendon]

Hi Richard

 

Your work setup sounds frustrating Do they use the same sized drives for daily backup of the server? (or did I just stray into a minefield?)

 

I'd be interested in hearing what you find out about availability and cost of mini-CDs.

 

Regards,

Brendon

[Richard Fdisk.exe]

Hi Richard

 

Your work setup sounds frustrating Do they use the same sized drives for daily backup of the server? (or did I just stray into a minefield?)

 

I'd be interested in hearing what you find out about availability and cost of mini-CDs.

 

Regards,

Brendon

Hi Brendon;

 

actually the "daily backups" are all jammed onto a "tape backup drive"

when we first got the thing I was told to use the server, so I dumped about

80+ GB of unfinished audio files onto it and, then got a nice email about not

"filling" the server because it takes so long for the backup to finish

so I said then give me an external USB HD and they brought me a 234GB

which i managed to get formatted as FAT32 w/ a w2k machine (over 7billion 32k sectors)

 

now the server is full again and no one's getting emails about not "filling" it up

since then I've had to buy my own 500GB "external drive" to use for storage.

(actually, shhh! I built it myself with an old USB case and a new "internal" HD)

I have more space on my home machine (in my sig.) than all the drives in all PC's combined here

I've always done that though, I ran my old 486 100 MHz overdrive with

win3.1 / DOS 6.20 on a 1.5GB C: and the D: was a 2.1GB I never ran out of space on that thing!

(just a side note both drives still spin up and work to this day)

 

but anyway I'll post about the prices, I know I can get them just don't know the price(s)

the supplier just sends us their little catalog/flyers and there's no definite prices because

if we want, say 1,000,000 of them we get a better price but they won't print the prices

because it depends on who answers the phone sometimes.

just like when you phone the cellphone company about mysterious charges, sometimes

they say right away sure we can credit that back and other days they talk for half an hour

and stare at your account on the screen while you explain it over and over.

 

 

cheers;

«►RfD◄»

[Richard Fdisk.exe]

I know it's been a while but I did say I would post when I got a price on the mini CD's

 

they're available from "Western Imperial Magnetics" in B.C.

 

they told us that they're $38.00 / 100 in a tube (levy free)

the only weird thing is that the 3" disk shown says 185MB capacity

rather than 300MB as mentioned in a post above

 

are these different types?

 

I'll get them to send me a "Sample" free one to test and find out for myself also

 

cheers

(«►RfD◄»)

 

edit:

here's the page

link

[Brendon]

That's a bit of a strange figure, Richard.

 

I just put one of my 'Transonic' brand 3" discs through the scanner, and here's what I got.

 

 

It's definitely 300 MB (or near enough).

 

Regards,

Brendon

[jssilva]

If I remember correctly the 3" discs came in 155, 185, 193, 210, and 300MB.

The 155MB disc was low density. The 185MB disc was standard. The 193MB disc used the same data density as a 650MB full size disc. The 210MB disc used the same data density as a 700MB full size disc. The 300MB disc used enhanced density.

 

I think that the 185MB and 210MB discs are the most common today and the other sizes are hard to find (at least in the US).