Hope my noobish question will b answered easily about LiteON

[gatorlee]

Now, in the tutorial that CoFree put together it says something about the com port. As far as I know my computer does not have a com port, nor have I had a com port on my computer for a long time. Please tell me if I am wrong, or my jargon is incorrect, if not is there away to get around this com port issue?

[stick person]

look on the back of your computer for a plug that looks like this

[CoFree]

if you are going to use iprep
you have to have a 9 pin com port
this should work as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815166003" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gatorlee]

Not to sound condescending, but isn't a com port just an outdated version of a Serial ATA? So what I am wondering, forgive me if I am wrong as I am not totally familiar with the Lite on, is why I am connecting a com cable to a connectivity kit and connecting it to the power supply of the lite on drive, when a sata cable should communicate the information needed?

Also, please let me know if there is a better place to post as I am referring to the tutorial section.

[sadalius]

Do not confuse SATA with an RS232 communication port. Yes, it does use an older version of the serial protocol, but SATA serial is entirely different than RS232 serial. The serial communication that takes place with a lite-on drive takes place at the TTL level so SATA would never be able to do that. The reason being is serial ata specifications does not allow it to slow down to 8 bits per second.

This is the reason for the need for an RS232 TTL converting device such as a CK3 or other similar device that contains a MAX3232 chip to convert the serial connection to the TTL level.

Now the reason you'll need an RS232 cable if you use iprep is because there is no USB support in DOS mode which is what iprep uses to do it's thing, but a standard RS232 port can be addressed in dos because it is assigned an IRQ by your computers BIOS and therefore becomes addressable in DOS mode. But your computer would have to have an RS232 port for that to work in the first place, or an RS232 add on card.

If you use windows, in addition to your RS232 TTL converter you would have to have a USB to serial converter or use the RS232 cable either one. The CK3 pro supports both RS232 cables or USB to serial.

Hope this helps to understand how it works and a little about the technology.

[gatorlee]

Yes it does thank you for that concise answer.