Rating: 
Summary: Reasonable burner - miserable software
Review: I have had mine for a week now, and after a rocky start, I am fairly happy with it. As far as the recorder hardware goes, it works fine. It is a little slow (4x), but that is due to the USB more than anything else. It's biggest shortcoming is the awful "MyCD" software that it comes with. It also came with Adaptec's barely adequate DirectCD as well. Get new software if you want to use this drive! Also, due to the shared nature of the USB interface (the 'B' is 'Bus' after all), you don't want to do much of anything else while it writes - especially don't let your screen saver start up.
Rating: 
Summary: If it breaks, you're SCREWED
Review: You'd think a HP CD-Writer with an HP Omnibook would work, right? It did...for two months. Then it stopped. Despite the fact that it was obviously broken (would not work after reinstall, or on a friend's computer; I tested the USB cables and my USB port separately, I tried it on a fresh install on a clean system), I went through three weeks of inane support e-mails (is the unit plugged in?). Once I had tried all 32 suggestions of theirs, they asked me for information to get it sent in for repair -- and THEN told me that they wouldn't do it in Canada. I'm now running over $15 in long-distance bills because they don't have a 1-800 support number and routine hold time is 45 minutes. This has been the worst experience in over fifteen years of dealing with computers. Avoid HP like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: Initial challenges, working great now
Review: It took some effort to get it working smoothly, but that is the nature of CD burners in general I have learned. Now it works fine and reliably. I downloaded Feurio software from the web for buring music CD-R's, its great and works well with this burner. The backup software supplied by HP is short on options, but works fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I have had the cd burner since Christmas and I love it. I have had no problems at all. I have made close to 40 audio cd's and have not had one bad one yet. I have also had no problems at all with using Direct cd. I would highly recommend this cd burner to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: HAPPY CAMPER
Review: I HAD MY CD-WRITER UNPACKED AND WAS LISTENING TO MY FIRST CD IN LESS THEN AN HOUR. THIS WAS SO EASY AND I AM VERY PLEASED.
Rating:
Summary: If you have Adaptec Easy cd creator ver. 4.02d, it's OK!
Review: If you happen to own Adaptec (Roxio) Easy CD Creator 4.02d and/or Direct CD 3.01d, according from Adaptec (Roxio) website, HP 8230e is compatible with these two softwares. You can get Easy CD with ($) rebate before Dec 31st,00, details for rebate check out...Be careful, HP always has a problem with buffer underrun, so you have to select advance option (from copying CD software) and burn the CD through your hard drive (usually people use this option to burn multiple copies) to overcome this problem. It is a lot slower, yet it works. If you can afford, go for external Firewire( IEE 1394 or i-link...they are all the same) or SCSI CDRW. They are a lot faster. Go for new Yamaha 2100EZ or TDK (new one) for burn proof technology. Both of them are internal and costing more however. I hope it helps.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun to use
Review: I have had this Cd writer for a a few months and am very pleased with its performance. It was very easy to set up and the software that was included is simple to use. So far, it has been worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: Stay away from USB Burners
Review: The HP 8230 USB burner gets 1 star because that's the lowest I can give. In summation, my successful burn rate is only about 60%, and it took me 2 months of troubleshooting to even get that mediocre performance. USB devices in general create a lot of conflicts because Windows 98 reallocates them everytime you reconnect them. The HP is no different. I bought USB because, though they have slightly lower data rates than internal burners, I thought that the convenience of being able to plug-n-play on different computers was worth it. HP also has an excellent reputation for making great burners (so buy an internal IDE burner) I bought the 8230 on condition that it 1.)was bundled with and 2.) was compatible with Adaptec Easy CD -- the industry-standard CD writing software. HP's internal burners come with Adaptec, but like many USB burners, the 8230 won't work with it. The HP 8230 comes bundled with it's own cd writing program that misses many key features that Adaptec users enjoy. The 8230 doesn't even work well with Adaptec DirectCD, meaning that you can't use DirectCD's drag and drop function (copying to a Cd-RW is done in the same manner as you would copy from one folder to another) that make CD-RW such a great backup technology. HP designs some mean hardware, but until MS can work out the hardware conflicts associated with USB devices on Windows 98, go internal if you're after burner performance. And HP needs to remember it's not a software company -- give us Adaptec Easy Cd creator, not some featureless bundle with a pretty interface.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Use, Works like a Pro, Reasonably Priced
Review: This is my first experience with a CD Writer and I'm very pleased. Easy to set up and operate, it has minimal, yet sufficient, written documentation and includes a host of easy to use software. It is a solidly built, straightforwardly designed component and is a lot of fun to use. I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: BIEN
Review: COMPRE ESTE CD WRITER HACE YA 2 MESES ,ES UN MUY BUEN PRODUCTO.ES RAPIDO Y LO MEJOR DE TODO ES QUE LO PUEDES CONECTAR EXTERNAMENTE.LO RECOMIENDO.
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