CD-ROMS ARE CHEAP, light, durable, spacious, and cross-platform-capable -- the ideal medium for transporting or archiving large files. The only reason recordable CD-ROM (CD-R) drives aren't more popular is because using one is a colossal pain in the posterior.
Sony's new CD-R drives, based on the company's new CD-R file-system (CD-RFS) technology, aim to reverse CD-R's reputation. Although most CD-R drives require you to write -- or "burn" -- an entire CD-ROM at a time, a CD-RFS drive can also write data in small packets, much as hard drives and floppy drives can. A CD-RFS disc appears as a volume on your desktop; you simply drag and drop files to copy them or drag them to the Trash to delete them. (Since CD-ROMs are a write-once medium, files aren't actually deleted; they're merely hidden. The CD-RFS History function lets you "undelete" hidden files.) When you want to share a CD-RFS disc, you use a Sony-supplied utility to "freeze" the data; the disc can then be read by any Mac OS, Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, or UNIX system (the necessary driver software is included on the disc).
The first CD-RFS-based drives from Sony are the internal Spressa 940 and the external Spressa 9411; both are also 4x CD-ROM drives. At prices hovering around $1,000 (which includes the capable Corel CD Creator mastering software), they won't tempt you to replace your current CD-ROM drive. Let's hope Sony soon sees the advantages of high-volume pricing. 800-352-7669; http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/ccpg/.
