Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as I feared...
Review: After reading a lot of mixed reviews for this product I finally just decided to see for myself. Indeed, after opening the box it took some minutes to figure out the best sequence for things, but after that the device worked flawlessly. No problem with the cord from the adapter being too loose. It read my 40x 1GB flash card no problem as well as some old smartmedia I tried. Burn time for 650MB was approx. 20 minutes. No problem burning multiple sessions, I just needed to switch off & on to burn to the same CD. Hooked up to the TV it played the picture-CD's (and homemade DVD's) like my nomal DVD player. I didn't test any audio CD's because I really need the Roadstor to burn all the pictures I take on the road or on vacation. For this purpose I would give this device 5 stars, but it does NOT see my memory stick PRO media (it should take "regular" memory sticks but I don't have any) and that is too bad. Maybe Micro Solutions will make a firmware upgrade available to download in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful, but seriously flawed.
Review: I agree with everyone who has posted about this item. I purchased it, tried it and was not able to get it to actually work while I was on vacation. I burned (i.e. wasted) three CDROMs which never succeeded in finishing, and when I talked the guy in the photo shop to let me use his computer to verify what had happened, it was clear that the CD was not properly burned. Fortunately I had a 1GB card in my camera and did not run out of storage. It would operate for a while and then simply spit out the CD without any message or failure notice.
However, I was able to get this to work like others have. The problem is two fold.
First, one reason I had such difficulty was that we were on a cruise ship at sea. Apparently this unit is PARTICULARLY motion sensitive. On "shore" it works perfectly as long as you LEAVE IT THE HECK ALONE.
Second, the internal software is so buggy you expect to see them come crawling out the CD drawer. The thing locks up with no diagnostic messages or recovery mechanism except power cyling. If you push the wrong button, you end up with the thing locked up and it ignores any buttons or anything with the remote control.
It works fairly well as an accessory burner and I have burned dozens of MP3 backup CDs as well as audio CDs for my car.
To use this for the intended purpose I bought it (which is to backup my digital camera) you need to do the following:
1) Be sure it is fully charged.
2) Turn on the power.
3) Insert a blank CD.
4) turn off the power.
5) insert the memory card.
6) turn on the power and wait for the display to let you know it is completely ready.
7) press the "backup" button.
8) wait a few seconds.
9) press the "backup" button again.
10) watch the display progress through the backup.
11) watch the display progress through the "table of contents"
If you have more data than fits on one CD, it will cycle through the CDs. (Like for my 1GB card, it took two CDs to finish.)
To use this as a USB burner, do the following:
0) always make an "image" file first, never write the CD directly with just the current layout.
1) plug in the burner to the wall and turn it on with no CD in it.
2) wait for the display to indicate that the device is ready.
3) plug the USB cable between the burner and your computer.
4) wait a good 10-15 seconds for it to be recognized by windoze.
As long as you realize this device has one of the buggiest firmware codes I have ever seen in a consumer product, and use it in one and exactly only one way, you will be happy.
If, however, you actually expect it to do all of what it advertises it does (like for example play a DVD - you can play the DVD alright, you just cannot navigate the menu and select the actual "play" option...) you will be sorely dissapointed.
The problems that others had are possibly not defective devices (although it is entirely possible) it may just be that they pressed the wrong key in the wrong sequence, the thing got confused, and they got mad because they assumed that the person writing the firmware code Had A Clue (tm).
I have not used the similar Sony product and did not buy it simply because it does not support compact flash. This omission was a stupid decision on Sony's part and is an obvious ploy to push their own memory card technology, however Sony has to realize that I am not going to walk away from compact flash technology just because of their portable CD burner. Grow up, VHS won over Beta, and this is the same argument.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't try it at home!
Review: I got mine yesterday delivered from Amazon in 24 hours! (Just amazing -- I paid nothing for shipping selecting Super Saver Shipping - and here you are - delivered next day - but that's beside the point). To make story short - it did not work! When CD is loaded it starts making kind of loud whirling noise then stops and nothing gets it in backup mode. So I burnt few hours try to get it work and failed. Quick test showd that unit had latest firmware installed. But surely diagnostic messages are all misleading.
Called support in the morning ( not tall-free number btw) and lady after hearing to these noises suggested that I should return item for replacement. That's it. I didn't try to hook it up to computer - why waste time? Will order JOBO CP 200 Apacer Disc Steno to see if there any difference.
Rating:
Summary: makes a world of difference in digital photography
Review: I just got this little wonder of a device and I absolutely love it. You can carry the roadstor around in it's included pouch, along with a few disks and take pictures till the cows come home.I don't really aim to use the DVD features, but I love that I can view my pictures on a TV. I anticipate using this thing a lot when I travel. Two biggest drawbacks:
1. The door to the drive is a hair flimsy and needs to be closed quite forcefully.
2. Battery life of the rechargable battery is just 2 hours.
Rating:
Summary: Backpack Roadstor is a disaster
Review: I purchased the Backpack Roadstor, initially tested it, then took it on vacation. Thanks to the Roadstor, I've lost about 100 photos that I'll never be able to retake. I found that it worked sometimes, and other times quit in the middle of file transfers. Sometimes it would reject a blank disk, only to accept it later if I reinserted it. Sometimes it would "refuse" to do a backup until I recycled power. The worst, however, is that it seemed to do a transfer from my Compact Flash successfully; but when I got home, the disk was unreadable in any CD or DVD drive I tried. My recommendation -- DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. If you already have one, do at least two backups of your CF card on separate disks before you erase your card.
Rating:
Summary: destroys CD-RW
Review: I tried 3 different CD-R's and 1 CD-RW blank media to copy both SmartCard and CompactFlash -- all of the CD media became unusable. The CD-RW was so damaged that none of my other computers could even erase it any longer. It was only able to burn 1 CD-R correctly, but when I tried to add to the compilation with more pictures, it scrambled the table of contents, creating yet another coaster. Piece of junk -- I returned it the same day.
Rating:
Summary: destroys CD-RW
Review: I tried 3 different CD-R's and 1 CD-RW blank media to copy both SmartCard and CompactFlash -- all of the CD media became unusable. The CD-RW was so damaged that none of my other computers could even erase it any longer. It was only able to burn 1 CD-R correctly, but when I tried to add to the compilation with more pictures, it scrambled the table of contents, creating yet another coaster. Piece of junk -- I returned it the same day.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't leave Home without it !
Review: Okay, you just bought a big 5 Meg digital camera and took a whole memory card full of pictures, Now what? You rush home, download them onto your PC, and hope the Harddrive doesn't crash until you can burn them onto a CD later. Lucky for you, you know how to burn a CD. Granted, it isn't hard for me but everybody who owns a camera doesn't know how. What about if you or I were on a trip to Europe or Asia? Take a whole memory card full of pictures. Now what? Your PC is back home in the USA. Better buy another memory card. Can you say $$$$? This RoadStor product takes away all that fuss. Take the card out of your camera, plug it into the RoadStor and push a button. While you sip on your drink, it's writing the pictures to the CD and will do that day after day on your vacation until it fills up the CD or until you decide to "finalize" the CD and start another. Watch your pictures in the hotel room after a day of sightseeing. Or watch a DVD movie if you plug it up to the TV in the room. Use the little remote. The RoadStor even comes with cables for all this to happen. I do not see how it could get any simpler than this. The Roadstor is a real bargain for $230. Oh, and it even comes in its own little black, miniature nylon suitcase/carrying case for travel. And it holds everything needed including room for a couple of blank CDs. I would give it 6 out of 5 stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Don't leave Home without it !
Review: Okay, you just bought a big 5 Meg digital camera and took a whole memory card full of pictures, Now what? You rush home, download them onto your PC, and hope the Harddrive doesn't crash until you can burn them onto a CD later. Lucky for you, you know how to burn a CD. Granted, it isn't hard for me but everybody who owns a camera doesn't know how. What about if you or I were on a trip to Europe or Asia? Take a whole memory card full of pictures. Now what? Your PC is back home in the USA. Better buy another memory card. Can you say $$$$? This RoadStor product takes away all that fuss. Take the card out of your camera, plug it into the RoadStor and push a button. While you sip on your drink, it's writing the pictures to the CD and will do that day after day on your vacation until it fills up the CD or until you decide to "finalize" the CD and start another. Watch your pictures in the hotel room after a day of sightseeing. Or watch a DVD movie if you plug it up to the TV in the room. Use the little remote. The RoadStor even comes with cables for all this to happen. I do not see how it could get any simpler than this. The Roadstor is a real bargain for $230. Oh, and it even comes in its own little black, miniature nylon suitcase/carrying case for travel. And it holds everything needed including room for a couple of blank CDs. I would give it 6 out of 5 stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: It works perfectly
Review: Out of the box perfect! No errors, no problems. CDs burned by the Roadstor can even be read by my finicky, piece of junk, HP drive. I took it to work and tried it in both an old, ready to be replaced Mac, and another PC. No problems.
On the road I will be making double backups and checking on the motel TV that the images transfered all right but that's common sense. It's also the reason I spent just a bit more for one that could be connected to the TV.
I don't intend to use CD-RW with it because I don't trust those in any drive. CD-R are cheap and provide "permanent" storage.
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