Panasonic PD LM-R650J

Zane H. Healy wrote: Does it have a little "PD" logo on the metal shutter? If so, it's probably one of the Panasonic "PD" (phase-change digital) discs. I remember reading about these in the mid-1990s, just before CD-RWs became widespread. They never really caught on (I certainly don't recall anyone selling the drives or the discs) and AIUI died off some time in the early '00s. There's a (small) amount about them on Wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_Dual> Basically, they store 650MB of data, and work similarly to a CD-RW (i.e. phase-change recording). You can read, write and erase them a few thousand times, but they're not readable in standard CD drives. Apparently a first-generation Panasonic DVD-RAM drive (that'll be the ones that take the big cartridges) can read them, but I suspect finding one of those in working condition might be difficult. Finding a working PD drive would probably be even more difficult... optical drives don't usually stay working for long IME. -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/