DVD writer

It came yesterday. A multi format drive (no DVD RAM). It came with the Nero OEM suite of software (Nero Express etc) I fitted it in my newly built PC upstairs along with the cards mentioned in a previous post
I also put the laptop USB wireless adaptor on this machine which came in handy when getting the card drivers installed. Pat picked up some DVD+RW discs this morning so I'm ready to start getting acquainted with this technology now.
I'm thinking of giving this machine a workhorse role - digitising my analogue music cassettes and archiving them. There's plenty there to keep it busy over the next few months.

Drive problem

Basically my USB2 external drive wouldn't start this morning. Checked the fuse which was OK so assumed (and prayed) the power supply had packed up. Took the drive out of the box and attempted to install it inside the HP Pavilion. This has a case which has some oddities - a large air vent box and (unusually) a removeable drive cage. I found the service manual on a PDF file on the HP and attempted to print it out but the HP PSC 1205 insiste on grabbing about 10 sheets at once. So I cancelled and copied the file over the network to a Win 98 machine so I could read it on screen while working on the Pavilion. Anyway the manual insists that the drive should be set to cable-select, but when I booted up the HP BIOS (press F1 before the initial blue screen) couldn't detect it. By this stage I was fearing that the drive and the 80GB of data on it, had gone for a burton. (?) but I changed the drive jumper to slave and it was immediately recognised (phew!),

John pushes the boat out

eBay.co.uk: Black 16X Dual Layer Liteon +/- Multiformat DVD Writer (item 5228107166 end time 17-Aug-05 19:07:09 BST)
All in the cause of fitting up the PC I'm building also managed to get a soundcard (creative ct 4810) and an ATI Rage 2c graphics card for £2 each at the local boot sale. Nothing to write home about but they'll keep the machine ticking over whilst it performs its workhorse tasks.

MSI board as the basis for my "new" homebuilt PC

MSI Link to the future >> Mainboard
MSI K7 Pro Motherboard with Slot A Athlon 800 and 256MB of PC133 RAM as a starting point and a 40GB hard drive also purchased from the auction on CIX.
I have it going now with a Windows 98 install but still plenty to do in the way of cards and connections.