[vcf-midatlantic] Can PD-1 LF-1094C drive read NeXT optical disk cartridges?

[David Ryskalczyk]

I believe the only drives that can read these disks are NeXT and Canon
DiskFile.

I have four drives that I picked up in non-working condition and I've been
planning to fix one to use with my Cube, but right now don't have the time.

David Ryskalczyk

On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 9:07 AM, Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

> No, it cannot. The formats are different, the cartridges are somewhat
> different shapes, etc.
>
> The NeXT optical disks are a bit of a special breed, you really need
> the correct optical drive to read them. Those are starting to fail at
> this point, but can be repaired. The problem, of course, is finding
> the optical drive and cartridges to use in the first place.
>
> -Ian
>
> On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 6:36 AM, Eric Rangell via vcf-midatlantic
> <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > I recently visited the Large Scale Systems Museum in New Kensington, PA,
> and one of the NeXT boxes had an optical drive.
> > I have a Compaq Presario 9240 from the late 1990s which came with a PD-1
> LF-1094C drive that is driven by an Opti Dual PCI IDE Controller on IRQ 14.
> >
> > Here is a picture of the optical drive with a cartridge:
> > http://erangellcomblog.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/
> uploads/2018/02/PD1drive.jpg <http://erangellcomblog.
> azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/PD1drive.jpg>
> >
> > Does anyone think this drive can read the raw data from a NeXT cartridge
> so it can be saved somewhere else?
> > I can bring it to an upcoming workshop if someone wants to hack on it.
> >
> > I will also be at the lecture by Alice Bowman on 2/24 at Infoage, so let
> me know if anyone is going and would like to meet up.
> > Thanks,
> > Eric Rangell
> >
>