Panasonic LF-D311 IDE DVD-RAM/R - Page 6

The Attached Software

The Panasonic LF-D311 comes with a "drivers" CD for installing the drive at Win9X/2k operating systems. Among with the windows drivers, several other utilities will be included for performing several tasks. Note that you MUST install the driver pack or else the DVD-RAM part cannot be used.

- Driver software

A program that allows the DVD-RAM drive to be used in a Windows 98/Me/2k environment, and to allow reading from and writing to UDF format discs. That includes the "DVD-RAM/R device driver" ,a device driver that enables Windows to properly communicate with the DVD-RAM/R, among with the "UDF file system driver" ,a device driver that enables Windows to read from and write to a UDF formatted DVD-RAM disc.

After installing the driver pack, Windows will recognize the LF-D311 as a removable drive and with simple drag&drop moves you will be able to start backup your important data. The Windows XP users should download the newest driver pack over here.

- Format software (DVDForm)

A DVD-RAM disc can be formatted using either UDF (Universal Disk Format) or FAT format. Use the format appropriate to your needs. Format 2.8 GB (8 cm) / 5.2 GB / 9.4 GB double-sided DVD-RAM discs one side at a time. The attached 4.7GB DVD-RAM media wasn't formatted. As soon DVDForm was loaded we had to format the disc in order be able to use it. There are 4 available format options:

- UDF (Universal Disk Format): UDF is newly specified for the DVD family of products to enable a high level of data compatibility between DVD-ROM, DVD-R and DVD-RAM. This new format is optimized for big capacity files, such as Video and Audio capture and playback, to keep constant, high transfer rates. When the UDF is used for formatting, files may be displayed more slowly in Explorer.

Select “Universal Disk Format (UDF 2.0)” when you are going to use the DVD-RAM disc to write audio-visual data. Select this format only if the disc is to be played in a DVD Recorder that uses the DVD Forum's video recording standard or with the recording software designed for personal computers that is based on the above standard, or if an 8-cm DVD-RAM is to be used in a DVD video camera.

- FAT Format: FAT is the Windows OS embedded file system and used for hard disk drives. Compared with UDF, it is good for small random file access.

We selected UDF v1.50 and a warning message appeared, prompting us to insert a volume label:

After 18secs (!) our disc was formatted and has the following properties:

- Region setting software (DVDRgn)

Allow you to set the region number for DVDs. Only 4 changes are possible:

- RAMDiscTool (Before using non-cartridge discs)

It enables you to take full advantage of the characteristics of non-cartridge DVD-RAM discs. You can perform various tasks such as:

* Drive Setting for Non-cartridge DVD-RAM Disc: The drive can be set to “Enable to write” or “Disable to write” for non-cartridge DVD-RAM discs. The drive has been factory-setted to “Enable to write”, so it is unnecessary to change this setting. It is usually unnecessary to change this setting.

* Dust Check for DVD-RAM Disc: There are 3 levels of disc dustiness; level 3 is the dustiest. The results should only be used as a guide and should not be considered a guarantee of the disc's ability to read or write.

* Write-Protect Setting for DVD-RAM Disc: With non-cartridge DVD-RAM discs, you are unable to use the write-protect tab on the cartridge to protect your data. This software allows you to protect data on non-cartridge DVD-RAM discs. Once a DVD-RAM disc is set to the write-protected mode, it is valid until this setting is canceled by this software. This software can only be used with 4.7GB DVD-RAM/R drive. The Write-protect Setting is not applied to 2.6 GB DVD-RAM discs.

- ODDiag (Drive/Disc Diagnostic Utility)

A utility that provides functionality to check the DVD-RAM/R drive and disc and to make copies of DVD-RAM discs. You can also upgrade the firmware.