The ST-W1111 is Toshiba's latest DVD-RAM drive and is faster with a bigger buffer than its predecessor, the SD-W1110. The drive we tested came without a SCSI card so we connected it to our existing SCSI controller. As with all the drives in our review we had no trouble installing it. Provided the identity of the drive is set to a spare number and, if your drive is the furthest away from the controller you've remembered to turn on termination, then everything works.

Toshiba uses different software to set up its drives, and instead of creating two icons in the filing system, the Instant Write software has only one drive designation. If you're using a CD in the drive then you see a CD icon and when you insert a DVD-RAM cartridge the icon changes to a DVD drive. This is a nice idea but we did experience some difficulty with UDF compatibility between discs formatted with this software and those using Write DVD.

One interesting feature that Toshiba has included in the software is the ability to 'Fixate' the disc. After all your data has been added to the DVD-RAM a fixated disc can be removed from the caddy and used in a standard DVD-ROM or even a DVD-Video player.