Rating: 
Summary: Beyond the Zip drive
Review: I was knocked out to discover how easily this unit installed. The installation software walks you through the install, and the very brief install booklet is clearly illustrated. No ambiguities and it worked the first time. Anyone can do this.Yes. You can make music CDs that will work on your CD players, and data disks that will work on non-CD writer drives. It's great for that. But the best part for me is that this unit very inexpensively and easily has taken care of my backup needs. This CD Writer is far superior to a ZIP or Super Drive for backup for three reasons. First, the media is cheap--a dollar or less for 650 MB CDR media versus the much higher cost for ZIP or Super Drive media. Second, moving your files to another computer is easier with CD ROM media. Nearly all computers have CD drives, but many don't have ZIP or Super Drives. Lastly, CDR and CDRW media are taking over. Check the shelves in your computer stores and you'll find that ZIP and Super Drive media are far less abundant than CDR and CDRW media. For the money, this drive is everything I need. HP has made a solid, reliable product at a great price.
Rating:
Summary: Great product but a little......
Review: I would like to start out saying that this product is great! Hewlett Packard is always known for their multimedia hardware. Well they didn't go wrong with this one. I have been using this product for just over a month and it works great. I have burned many backup CD's and made my own personal mix, audio CD. I did all these without a flaw. The CD-ReWritable works great for all my quick backups that I won't need for a long period of time, just for a quick storage. The only thing wrong with this CD Burner is speed! If you are in the market for a CD Burner and don't have the money, this is the burner for you! If you are looking for speed, definately look to Hewlett Packards higher end line of burners with at least 8x Write. Overall it is a GREAT product!
Rating:
Summary: HP never fails...
Review: I've already burned lots of CD's and not a single one has failed me yet. It comes with 2 very powerful programs to easily make data and music CD's. Included is a free 74 minute CDR to get you started. Everything needed for installation is included which allowed me to get everything working in a snap and making my first CD in less than 10 minutes. You need to convert .mp3 files to wav format to copy songs to a CD so you need a fairly large hard drive. Buy this drive for its extreme ease of installation and use, and its quality that comes with the HP name. This drive won't fail you.
Rating: 
Summary: HP support stinks!
Review: I've had this CD-Writer for about a year now therefore my guarantee is over. I never had trouble with this unit, in fact i was delighted with because it had never corrupted a CD-R while burning it until it stoped burning them. I called HP support (that's long distance, cause I live in the Dominican Republic) and mailed them a thousand times and they couldn't help me so when they saw they couldn't do nothing they just told me i'm sorry there's nothing we could do and didn't even recommend a store were I could take drive to fix. That also happened with my HP 49G Calculator. So my advice after all this is don't spend 180 dollars like I did on a pretty good drive that someday soon is gonna wreck and you'll be left high and dry but HP support.
Rating:
Summary: Good personal rewriter, but has technical problems
Review: I've used this drive for over a year and am moderately pleased with it. The one major technical problem I've had is that over the past year, five of my CD-RW discs have been rendered unwritable due to errors that occurred during writing. I'm not sure whether this is a problem with the software or the hardware, or the brand of CD-RW discs I used (Memorex). I've had CD-RW discs damaged before with other drives, and have been told this is just the nature of the technology for CD-RW discs. Not to mention, CD-RW discs are much more expensive. If you look for a drive that works reliably with CD-RW discs, this drive is not it. CD-R discs have given me less problem. None has been damaged on this drive. But on rare occasions CD-R discs formatted with this drive are not readable on certain CD-ROM or CD-RW drives, even though those drives can read other CD-R discs. My advice is, if you've found one brand of discs that work well on all of the drives you use, stick with it. The installation CD includes an AVI video clip that shows you how to open up your PC and mount the drive to the drive bay. Since your PC must be off while you're doing that, the video clip can't be very helpful. Plug-n-play detects the drive during Windows startup. It is the installation of the software (DirectCD and Easy CD Creator) that poses some challange. First of all, these 2 programs are made by Adaptec and they are not available for download on HP's web site, so don't lose the installation CD that comes with the drive! Second, make sure you patch the two programs to at least version 2.5d for DirectCD and 3.5c for Easy CD Creator. Any earlier version could cause frequent crashes, lockups, and software errors. You can download the patches from Adaptec. The UDF Reader software is included on installation CD. It enables read-only CD drives to read CD-RW discs created by DirectCD. The installation CD doesn't have a DOS driver for the drive. And I can't find one on HP's web site either. But I found a driver named SBIDE.SYS at Creative Labs' web site that works nicely in DOS. It is even able to detect multiple CD-ROM drives, provided your other drives are also IDE. For personal use, this drive will suffice. But due to the technical problems I encountered, I would not recommend this drive to anyone who make extensive use of CD-RW discs. It's kind of ironic, since a rewritable drive is primarily MADE for CD-RW discs.
Rating:
Summary: Good personal rewriter, but has technical problems
Review: I've used this drive for over a year and am moderately pleased with it. The one major technical problem I've had is that over the past year, five of my CD-RW discs have been rendered unwritable due to errors that occurred during writing. I'm not sure whether this is a problem with the software or the hardware, or the brand of CD-RW discs I used (Memorex). I've had CD-RW discs damaged before with other drives, and have been told this is just the nature of the technology for CD-RW discs. Not to mention, CD-RW discs are much more expensive. If you look for a drive that works reliably with CD-RW discs, this drive is not it. CD-R discs have given me less problem. None has been damaged on this drive. But on rare occasions CD-R discs formatted with this drive are not readable on certain CD-ROM or CD-RW drives, even though those drives can read other CD-R discs. My advice is, if you've found one brand of discs that work well on all of the drives you use, stick with it. The installation CD includes an AVI video clip that shows you how to open up your PC and mount the drive to the drive bay. Since your PC must be off while you're doing that, the video clip can't be very helpful. Plug-n-play detects the drive during Windows startup. It is the installation of the software (DirectCD and Easy CD Creator) that poses some challange. First of all, these 2 programs are made by Adaptec and they are not available for download on HP's web site, so don't lose the installation CD that comes with the drive! Second, make sure you patch the two programs to at least version 2.5d for DirectCD and 3.5c for Easy CD Creator. Any earlier version could cause frequent crashes, lockups, and software errors. You can download the patches from Adaptec. The UDF Reader software is included on installation CD. It enables read-only CD drives to read CD-RW discs created by DirectCD. The installation CD doesn't have a DOS driver for the drive. And I can't find one on HP's web site either. But I found a driver named SBIDE.SYS at Creative Labs' web site that works nicely in DOS. It is even able to detect multiple CD-ROM drives, provided your other drives are also IDE. For personal use, this drive will suffice. But due to the technical problems I encountered, I would not recommend this drive to anyone who make extensive use of CD-RW discs. It's kind of ironic, since a rewritable drive is primarily MADE for CD-RW discs.
Rating:
Summary: Its Great
Review: The CD burner i purchased it great. Just great. I am so happy that it is that great.
Rating: 
Summary: Defective Software
Review: The drive is actually pretty easy to install. No problems there. But when I tried to install the software that came with the drive, I ran into problems. The software will not complete installation on my Compaq Presario 5304. It unpacks some support files, and then just hangs there at the blue screen. The drive will read computer disks and audio CD's but if I try to write anything, it tells me I need to install the software. When I tell it to go ahead and install the software, it does the exact same thing, EVERY TIME, which is to unpack the support files and then hang there doing NOTHING. This has been a nightmare so far. I've spent good money and all I can do is stare helplessly and hope that Hewlett Packard tech support will be able to help (and I don't put much faith in tech support). This has been an awful experience.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product!!!
Review: This burner is great!! It's fast, for a 4x, and reliable. One thing to keep in mind if you bye this burner, don't use Memorex CD-RWs, they crash your computer. I bought a 5 pack of Memorexes, and burned a coaster out of all 5. This is a great burner, and I recomend that you buy it, just dont use Memorex CD-RWs. The CD-Rs (TDK) work fine, no coasters there. Overall, a great, reliable burner for audio and data.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product!!!
Review: This burner is great!! It's fast, for a 4x, and reliable. One thing to keep in mind if you bye this burner, don't use Memorex CD-RWs, they crash your computer. I bought a 5 pack of Memorexes, and burned a coaster out of all 5. This is a great burner, and I recomend that you buy it, just dont use Memorex CD-RWs. The CD-Rs (TDK) work fine, no coasters there. Overall, a great, reliable burner for audio and data.
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