Does anyone know why Linux (particularly Mandrake as this is the only disto that I've hade much experience with) insists on using SCSI emulation in order to use an IDE CD-burner? It can use IDE HDDs without having to use SCSI emulation for them. It can use IDE CD/DVD drives withouth having to use SCSI emulation for them. Why, when there are plenty of IDE Burners around, does it insist on pretending that it's a SCSI burner?

BTW: Not so much a problem as a query.

Just came across this nice old post of mine.

Anyway, still can't figure this out.

From Joerg Schillings ATAPI README ,

Cheers, that actually makes a lot of things much clearer.

Glad to be of some help :D

Hi
SCSI = fast and reliable
IDE (before UDMA I guess) = slower and unreliable
CD burner needs constant data flow, as can't stop/start/reposition mid burn.
First CD-R drives were thus SCSI
When they made IDE CD-R, they thought...
"Shall we write a whole load of new commands/drivers, or shall we emulate SCSI over the IDE bus".
And so SCSI emulation happened
Windoze apparently also uses SCSI emulation, you just don't know about it.
Newer drives have big cache, but still use SCSI.
Hope that helps.
Jim

It all makes sense now, thanks. :) After reading the first few replies to this thread, I was kinda lost. :D