RE: OED, CD-ROMS, Hard drives, etc.

["Thomas A. Robertson" t-r@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren  holmgren@xxxxxxxx

In answer to your inquiry, the following describes my project to create a
super, virtual CD-ROM-based (e.g., carried on the hard disk) reference system
for use in laptops, desktop, and networked PCs.

The idea is to move CD-ROM reference material from the CD-ROM drive onto the
larger hard disks now affordably coming into the market.

Recent modifications of my system give me a 4.3 Gig Seagate ST34371W Fast Wide
SCSI drive running with my original 2.1 Gig Fast Wide SCSI drive, for a total
of 6.4 Gig. I am currently using an Adaptec 2940W hard drive adapter.

For what its worth, new drives, mainly IDE, are coming into the market for
$150 per Gigabyte or less. While SCSI is faster, its additional speed may not
be a real factor in the performance of a hard disk emulating a CD-ROM.

I am using a combination of Logicraft Virtual CD-ROM (www.logicraft.com, 800
880 5644, $69.99) and Partition Magic (www.powercraft.com, 800 379 2566,
$69.95) to
load a number of reference CD-ROMs onto my hard disk.

Virtual CD-ROM works by creating the hard disk equivalent of a CD-ROM in the
form of single, read-only file with an associated drive letter. Once
installed, it works just like a CD-ROM.

Partition Magic allows me to move hard disk memory space between drive
partitions so I can make the most beneficial use of drive space

It all took some learning, (the OED has to be first in the virtual CD-ROM
lineup, and you should make more virtual drives than you think you need) but
the end result is that it all works smoothly on my 120 Pentium system with 32
Mb of memory.

With this setup, I get the following benefits:
all the Virtual CD-ROM drives are available simultaneously (With 32 Mb of
memory, I am able to actually load all the reference programs along with
applications like Word97 and of course XyWrite 4.17, which never leaves my
desktop.).
The information from all CD-ROMs is are available and move data many times
faster than on a CD-ROM drive.
Sound quality is unaffected, as well as I can tell with my tin ears.
I avoid the disk-seeking shuffle inherent in CD-ROM juke box drives;
I can, and this is taking some getting used to, work with far more reference
resources than I ever thought possible and do so with minimum technological
interruption of what ever it is that passes for my intellectual processes.

For example, I can now have six virtual drives installed. I am able (so far)
to work all virtual drives open at the same time:
the Oxford English Dictionary	$400 Approximate costs
Encarta Encyclopedia 97		$79.00
Encarta Atlas 96			$49
Bookshelf 97			$54.97
and the Encyclopedia Britannica	$300

Note: Before I got the Encyclopedia Britannica, I also loaded the CD_ROM
Office 97 came on. I was doing a lot of work learning and customizing the
program and often reinstall to test different configurations. Reinstalls that
used to take 45 minutes I could do in ten minutes or less.

I still have room for several more CD-ROMs, which I use for specialty
databases. Virtual CD-ROM does some compression of CD-ROM data, so some
additional storage space is picked up here.

In other words, this whole system beats the heck out of a juke box, and I
never have to go thru that irritating juke box shuffle as it identifies each
drive. You know what I mean if you have such a drive.

As for costs, here are some rough numbers on how Virtual CD-ROMs can be used
to make up very high-powered reference systems.

Using Logicraft's Virtual CD-ROM software, and managing the hard drive
partitioning with Powerquest's Partition Magic, I am able to install at least
six virtual CD-ROMs on a 4.2 Gig Seagate ST34371W drive. Figuring
drive/software costs at about $1,100.00, at the time I first set this system
up, this gives the equivalent of at least six $183 per drive, 22X speed,
CD-ROMs that can be used simultaneously on a stand alone or networked system.

Rough costs of the Reference data are noted above

This also means that two full-sized Virtual CD-ROMs can be easily installed,
in addition to operating progrmas and applications (e.g., Win95 and MS
Office97 etc.) on the new 2.1 gig drives now being sold with the newer laptop
computers like the IBM 760CDs.

This lets one carry and easily access an extraordinary quantity of
information.

I will go into more detail in the future as I become comfortable with this
system. It really does take some getting used to. One's reaction to a new
question is so often based on past experiences and the effort it takes to get
answers--in many ways, that effort has practically dissapeared. I sense all
this is changing my work behavior, but I am not yet sure exactly how.

In addition I will go through my notes and see what you-all can do to make
this process easier for your customers.

FYI: A few things folks should think about in advance when adding or replacing
hard drives.
Check out the brackets and other drive hardware you need in advance. Some
computers, like Compaq, need special brackets you can only get from them. I
did not learn by experience, but you can wreck an expensive drive by trying to
jury rig an installation and putting undue stress on the drive case.
Check out what cables you need and with SCSI, get several extra terminal
blocks for future drive installations. Would it also be a good idea to install
the CDROM or somesuch on the last terminal block on the cable, so you can add
new components to open middle.
Create a partition for all your TEMP and Cache files. This way you can keep
track of these things and the ways they can grow as you do any large amount of
Internet stuff.
There, as far as I can tell, ways around practically every barrier, but
sometimes it really tries your patience to find what you can and cannot do.
Always get the largest hard drive you can affort.

I will be adding to this in the future and would appreciate all comments.

TR...

PS: I was able to pull the following from the Oxford English Dictionary in
less than twenty seconds. This is faster than you could walk to where the
paper version is kept, to say nothing of lugging it onto a desk and hunting up
the reference and then writing out what you wanted.

system (_______, ___). Also 7_8 systeme, 8 sistem(e.
[ad. late L. systema musical interval, in med. or mod.L., the universe, body
of the articles of faith, a. Gr. _______ organized whole, government,
constitution, a body of men or animals, musical interval, union of several
metres into a whole, f. ___ syn-1 + ____, root of _______ to set up (see stand
v.). Cf. F. syst?me (1664, _le systeme de l'ame', in Hatz.-Darm.), It., Sp.
sistema, Pg. systema, G. system, etc.]
I. An organized or connected group of objects.
1. A set or assemblage of things connected, associated, or interdependent, so
as to form a complex unity; a whole composed of parts in orderly arrangement
according to some scheme or plan; rarely applied to a simple or small
assemblage of things (nearly = _group' or _set').

_1638 Mede Apostasy Latter Times (1641) 64 Mans life is a systeme of divers
ages._ The yeare is a systeme of foure seasons.

1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxii. 115 By Systemes; I understand any numbers of
men joyned in one Interest, or one Businesse.

_1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. I. I. (1677) 15 The Universe, as it comprehends
the Systeme, Order and Excellencies of all created Beings.

1729 Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 31 The body is a system or constitution: so is
a tree: so is every machine.

Bet ya-all didn't know that....

Tom Robertson  t-r@xxxxxxxx