#CD ROM Format
3 messages in this thread
An elementary question from someone who is totally new to CD ROM issues: does t
matter whether a CDROM is produced on a Mac or DOS machine? Can a mac user read
a disk made for IBM? If it just contains data does it matter?
Does anyone know about the CDROM mastering packages Apple is offering (in
Canada)? Can they be used to create data disks that DOS users can read?
Or are CDROMS just like floppies; they can only be used on foreign machines
with file translators? If you have a SCSI ROM drive for a DOS machine, what
would you need to connect it to a MCA? I think it's made by Hitachi.
As you can see, I don't even know enough to ask intelligent questions, but help
would be much appreciated.
Dave
Dave,
Actually not such an elementary question.
There is a standard format for CD-ROM which can be read by most all machines.
It's called an ISO 9660 format. There are also format specific CDs which
require a particular machine such as a Mac of PC. Some discs are also mixed
over two or more particular formats but still not ISO 9660.
The format which should be used depends on the purpose for which the CD is
being written.
I can't help on the Apple package but would think an ISO disc would not need
the file translators. We could try one and if it didn't work, you wouldn't be
out anything.
Jerry Warner
CD Solutions, Inc.
CD-ROMs are like floppies: they can have various directory formats. The most
common format is ISO 9660. To read an ISO 9660 disc, you need a driver for
your computer that will translate ISO 9660 to your computers native disk
format. For MS-DOS, this tranaslator is called MSCDEX.EXE (MS-DOS CD-ROM
Extensions). For Macintosh, you will need the Foreign File Access driver with
the ISO 9660 translator.
CD-ROM discs sometimes uses formats other than ISO 9660. For example, some
Macintosh discs use the HFS format instead of ISO 9660. Macintoshers can
access this directory format, but MS-DOS PCs can't/