"
I am the person that posted the report this weekend in the Drive Database about
installing an Iomega 12x/10x/32x CD-RW in a G4. I found an interesting report
this morning that was posted yesterday regarding a hack to rename this drive
and update the firmware with the Plextor 1.0.7 firmware. The report also lends
further creed to the possibility that this drive is indeed a Plextor mechanism.
I attempted the procedure on VPC 4.0 and it would not work (drive not
recognized), but I plan on pulling the drive from the Mac and installing it on
a PC I have later today and attempting the procedure again. I will send another
report at that time.
Iomega ==> Plextor Hack
www.roundsparrow.com/comp/iomega1/
I also did some limited testing of the DAE capabilities of this drive
converting a single song from audio CD into MP3 format:
Orig. Song Length: 4:57
160kbps
CBR
Stereo
44.1kHz
All settings the same in all apps
Audio Catalyst 2.0.1
1:35 total time
Audion 2.0
Fraunhofer Normal 4:43 (max 1.5x speed)
Fraunhofer Fast 1:26 (max 4.9x speed)
Lame Normal 2:23 (max 2.6x speed)
N2MP3 1.5b3
2:08 total time
SoundJam 2.5.1
4:29 total time
Cleve Posey"
Another reader wrote with info on the Iomega/Plextor firmware trick:
"
I am happy to report that the technique for upgrading the Iomega 12x/10x/32x CD-RW drive listed at www.roundsparrow.com/comp/iomega1/ doesindeed work.I performed this operation last night and it went better than expected.
First I pulled the Iomega 12x/10x/32x from the Mac and installed it into anold PC. rebooted and launched the Iomega to Plextor Renamer (available at the location listed above). The app ran fine and indicated the drive had been renamed. So I rebooted the PC and the drive was no longer visible. I tried running the real Plextor firmware (available at Plextor) and it gave me some kind of ASPI error (I'm NOT PC so I didn't understand it). I pulled the drive and reinstalled in the G4 and verified that the name had been changed to a Plextor unit but the firmware was still at 1.0.4 (which is what it shipped with). At least the drive wasn't trashed. I tried to sort out the whole ASPI fiasco on the PC and finally gave up and reinstalled Windows 98SE. Reinstalled the Iomega (now a Plextor) and rebooted. The PC now saw the drive and I successfully ran the real Plextor updater on the drive. Pulled the drive and reinstalled in the G4 and it indicated the drive had indeed been updated to firmware 1.0.7.
As an added feature I have now been able to get the Plextor to work with Retrospect. The drive is recognized in Retrospect if you use only the ToastCD Reader (not the previously mentioned Apple 1.0.1 hacked drivers as seen in the screenshot above). Unfortunately with only the Toast driver installed my favorite burning program (CDMaster) would no longer see the drive (although it did see the external Yamaha 4416S drive connected to the SCSIchain). I tried several variations of Toast/Apple/Apple Hacked/Radiologic (that shipped with CDMaster) in an effort to get both drives recognized in both Retrospect 4.3 and CDMaster 1.0.3. There is no perfect combination. Although with the Radiologic drivers loading first and Toast CD Reader loading second I can see both drives in Restrospect, but the Yamaha indicates it is being controlled by a driver thatwill not let Retrospect access it. All other burning apps (Toast 4.1.2/Jam 2.6/B's Recorder Gold) worked regardless of the different variations.
In general if you do not have/or need to use CDMaster then the best drive for the Plextor (and Yamaha combination appears to be the Toast CD Reader alone.Thisgives you access to both drives in everything EXCEPT CDmaster.
I am very pleased that this process worked (although there were some tense moments when the PC would not see the drive after reboot) and the drive has beenperforming better than I ever expected. I have even been successfully burning at 12x on inexpensive Kingston media that is only rated at 4x.
I will re-perform my DAE experiments (as posted yesterday) with the new firmware and send the results later today.
Cleve Posey"
| 
