Larry, There are portable cdrom drives that use the parallel port. If
need be, they can share the parallel port with a printer, if one is
attached. The product I've used is from Backpack. The cost is
$230-260. I think these drives may be more expensive than the PCMCIA
or comparable. This is because the portable can be used on any pc.
Installation is very simple.

One note of caution, I am trying to use a portable cdrom on a HP
notebook, with little success. I've been working with the vendor for
a few days now.
However, I've never had a problem with standard desktop pcs(Dell,
DEC).

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On Monday, July 20, 1998 at 8:12:22 pm EDT,
"Larry Fisk" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I'm working on a 486 laptop for a client.
>The laptop is running win 3.1 doesn't have a cdrom.
> She wants Win 95 and Office 97 installed. I can't get Office 97
>or Win95 on  floppies at a good price.
>She wants a cdrom, but doesn't want to put more money
>into this laptop than it's worth.
>
> I know there are PCMCIA cdroms but they are expensive ($200 plus).
> Anyone got a more reasonable solution to this problem.
>Like a source of a parallel cdrom etc. at a reasonable price?
>Is there a parallel port "kit" like for harddrives to let one
> use a regular cdrom drive on a parallel port?
>
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Charly Rauscher                                 617-632-4244
Development Information Systems Manager
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
375 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02215