I guess it's not that remarkable after all.dcoke22 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 4:20 pmI have 3 different drives. They often produce different results… by that I mean a disc that won't rip in one of the drives will rip in a different drive.
Lots of folks on this forum have similar experiences. One user occasionally mentions an ancient drive he sometimes presses into duty that has been able to read some discs that nothing else in his fleet can.
I suppose my initial mindset was that brand new 5.25" drives should be more "heavy duty" and "reliable" than some flimsy little small form factor USB-powered laptop drive. Probably just a fluke, like maybe its laser just happens to have the right strength that just happens to reflect back in the right way that can still read data. I did notice the Dell still went a little bit slower over those trouble sectors, but the other drives all dropped to 0KB/sec and just stayed there. Maybe they just need some better firmware to try other laser configuration strategies, like more granular adjustment of the laser strength, distance, disc rotation speed etc. The LiteOn for example steps up in very gradual steps to reach full speed, whereas the Asus goes straight to full speed in one hit.