IBM Optical drives... A few questions - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

28 May 1999

Hi,

On 24 May 1999 Jason (the General) wrote:
...
  I just got two IBM Optical drives, complete with
drivers, controllers,
 operator's manual, and service manual. 
Nice. I have a 3363 drive myself, but no controller or docs. How big are the
manuals?

...
  -Are there updated drivers for these drives?  The ones
that cane with it run
 the driver as a DOS shell, which takes up a bunch of memory, and slows down
 the entire computer (also won't work with Windows). 
There *are* a couple of 3363-related files on the IBM PC BBS, but I doubt they
are significantly better than the drivers you have already.

ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/options/3363driv.exe
       142869 11-14-90  3363 Optical Disk Drive Opt Dsk V.1.02D 

ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/dos_util/3363.zip
       281665 05-24-90  Original 3363 opt dsk ver 3.3 & lower. 

...
  - Does anyone have an ISA controller card for one of
these drives?  Both 
That's just what I'm looking for to see whether my 3363 actually works. Please
let me know if you ever get hold of a spare.

...
  - Sometimes, when I put in a disk, and try to read it,
I get a "General
 Failure" error.  I take the disk out, put it back in, and it works.  I think
 there was a discussion about this before.  Do I just need to clean the
 disks? 
It wouldn't hurt. The lens inside the drive may also be dirty/dusty. It's not
fun to disassemble the drive in order to expose the lens.

As for cleaning the disks, try this:
 - wear plastic gloves to avoid getting oil from skin on disk surface
 - breath on disk surface and wipe radially with a folded-up kitchen towel
 - rotate the disk using finger through centre
 - do the same for the other surface.

...
  -The drives that I have are 3363's, and the disks
I have are 3363 200MB
 Single Sided cartridges (IBM).  Can I use other types of Optical disks, or
 do I have to use the IBM 3363 ones? 
No, as far as I know the 3363 uses proprietary disks, you can only use the IBM
ones. I bet the disks aren't available any more, though it wouldn't hurt to
ask IBM about this. If they are available, you can bet they'll be expensive.

...
  I've heard (I think it was on this list) that the
3363 is a WORM drive.
 However, it allows you to delete files, but you don't get any added space
 when the file is deleted (as if the file is still there).  If the file is
 actually gone, where did the empty space go, and is there any way to get it
 back?  Or is the file still there, and it being 'deleted' is it just an
 optical illusion (no pun intended)? 
Basically, the file is just marked as deleted in the directory (which will
always be at the end of the written part of the disk). It is still physically
on the disk. Depending on how the driver software works, it may or may not be
possible to access previously-deleted files.

Once a disk is full, you can't write to it again. You can't reformat a disk.

(In its operation you can think of the 3363 as similar to a CD-R drive using a
UDF filesystem -- I think.)

-- Mark