Installation

If you're old (like me), or if you've ever done a clean wipe of your hard drive, you're probably familiar with how unintuitive and frustrating CD-ROM installation can be. MSCDEX, CONFIG.SYS line entries, and all that jazz. Luckily, times have changed, and with Windows 95/98, mundane devices such as ATAPI CD-ROMs are all-but automatically detected. Even if you start from scratch, a Windows 98 Startup disk contains all the generic SCSI/ATAPI drivers needed to boot up with CD-ROM support.

The floppy's not dead yet

This brings us to the only potential pitfall to the 52X (note that it has nothing to do with the physical drive itself).Our Kenwood 52x doesn't come with a DOS installation/ATAPI driver diskette. I personally feel that the need for floppy installation disks have dropped significantly since the introduction of Win98, but not everyone has Win98, and those who do may not have created the requisite startup disks.

We're fortunate enough to be in an environment where any of a dozen systems can provide startup disks in the event of a fatal system error. However, the vast majority of computer users are not. A driver/installation disk is less than cheap and can save users many a potential headache down the road. Kenwood does supply a URL to download an emergency disk over the web, but if you've got access to a machine with Internet access, you might as well just make a startup disk.

Installation

Other than that oversight, I have no complaints. The drive is cleanly and clearly labeled, and supports the standard Master, Slave, and Cable Select modes. Also included are analog and digital S/P DIF audio out headers to sound cards. Of particular interest is the existence of the world's most highly engineered jumper - this little rubber enclosure even comes with a pull-handle!

Booting up Win98, the drive was automatically detected, and worked instantly. No hassles, no problems. To ensure compatibility, we booted up with a Win98 startup disk - as an ATAPI CD-ROM, the 52X should recognize and respond to the generic EIDE drivers provided by Microsoft - it did so perfectly as well.