This was all before my time I think, by at least a couple of years. $15 blank Cd-r? I think I got a computer without cd-r in 99? or is that way off?
Early 90s. The full-height (3.25 inches high) gigabyte hard drive that did not thermally recalibrate (which would interrupt the data flow) was obscenely expensive. The $3,000 single-speed SCSI CD writer was touchy too. You DID NOT touch the computer during the burning. Clicking on something could cause a disk access that could interrupt the data flow and cause a burn underrun, ruining your CD. There was no underrun buffer. You set everything up for the burn, clicked, and prayed.