Rating: 
Summary: Solid-Looking Hardware, Software Needs Work
Review: * The CD-ROM burner on my Compaq Presario never worked very well for burning
CDs and gradually became completely unable to do so. It could still read CDs
after a fashion, but obviously it needed to be replaced. Instead of
struggling with finding a swap-out replacement (oh WHEN are PC manufacturers
going to get serious about Drive-Bay Spec?), I decided that an external
solution might be a better bet. It seemed like an even better bet when I
bought a laptop that had an obviously light-duty DVD drive whose use I wanted
to minimize as much as possible.The Iomega USB CD-RW was surprisingly cheap, not that much more than a
plug-in drive, and so I ordered it. When I got the thing, the hardware
seemed sturdy enough, with a drive module about the size of a cigar box, an
external AC power supply, and a USB cable, and initial installation of the
software seemed to go well. I was listening to music CDs on both my desktop
and laptop in short order. Then I tried to burn a CD-R disk and the software didn't recognize it. After
some exasperation I got an update to the "Hotburn Pro" software from the
Iomega website, installed it, and then everything worked fine. However, I
only wrote some data directories to the disk, so I can't comment on the
advanced features of Hotburn Pro. I should also add that, unlike my old
burner, which allowed me to simply cut and paste files to a CD-R through
Windows Explorer, I had to use Hotburn Pro to do the burning. On a definite plus side I was very surprised that even though I had an
old-style slow USB link on my desktop, I could burn a full CD-R in a matter
of minutes, far faster than I expected. With my old buggy internal drive it
was a much more time-consuming operation. I bet it would work like a flash
on my laptop, which has USB 2.0.
Rating: 
Summary: Burner all right..............
Review: Didn't work out of the box. The cd just spun around and around....
Rating: 
Summary: I love it
Review: First off. I had some of the same problems
with locking and down and crashing on my old computer.
Since I have bought a new computer with usb 2.0 ports
I have no problems. Usb 2.0 makes a huge difference.
I would not recommend using it on usb 1.1.
Your not getting full use of it this burner if you do. I can burn a cd with nero or the hotburn software
in about 2 minutes. Hotburn software is actually a lot easier to use if you have never used it or Nero. Overall, I highly recommend this burner to anyone with a decent computer.
Rating:
Summary: Who uses CD burners anymore?
Review: Get with the program it's all about DVD burners now.
Rating:
Summary: Beware
Review: I bought this to move files of all types from a Win98SE desktop to a WinXP media center desktop. I had problems from the get-go. The installation software deleted and changed the drive configs on the Win98SE. Deleted the internal cdrom drive. Changed the regedit,config.sys, and autoexec files and substitued its own. Took 2 full days w/tech support to get computer back to operation. THEN the Sonic software is really screwed up! The CinePlayer sw wouldnt recognize the external Iomega drive and thus would not launch and froze the computer! The Sonic support is terrible at best. A non-toll free phone and missed scheduled appointments lead to Sonic not being able to fix the problem. I ended up returning the Iomega for a full refund. Iomega does NOT support the Sonic software it uses. Don't waste your money with this nor any Sonic software product.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: I bought this to replace an older Zip 650 that went bad. I was hesitant to buy another Iomega but the previous one was easy to set up and worked fine for a year and a half. It was a bad decision. The HotBurn software included is slow and unreliable (this drive doesn't support Toast). Half the time the disc just spins or if it does burn ends up unreadable. I managed to burn one cd successfully, an audio cd with just 4 tracks. It took 3 times as long as my old drive using Toast.
Skip this drive and look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Works Great witha Mac and a PC...fast & simple
Review: I had no problem with this device, I use it at work where I have a OS X Dual G4 Apple and a 2.2ghz Win 2000 Dell PC. I did happen to install it on both and it even comes with it's own burning software. The Iomega burning software did not work with the Mac, but Toast Titanium 6 did. I'm sure Easy CD Creator or Nero on PC will work just fine with it. Just drag & drop files and you were done! Simple USB conncection and excellent writing speeds has made this a good choice in my office. Iomega delivered nicely on this and plus, it's black!
Rating:
Summary: Is there a score lower than zero?
Review: I had nothing but problems with this drive. Every time I pluged it in, my windows 98se would lock up within 3 minutes. I tried it on two different computers and got the same result. I wasted a week of evenings downloading patches, updates, etc. The troubleshooting was not very helpful and the Iomega websight was slower than molasses in december. So after a stress-filled week I exchanged it for a TDK brand cdrw. I was burning disks in like five minutes. Maybe it was just my computer (both of them?) but I would recommend looking elsewhere if you want a trouble free drive.
Rating:
Summary: Rate zero, Do not purchase
Review: I have had nothing but problems with this CD Burner. The burning software that comes with it locks most of the time. I have been able to burn only a few CDs, and it's whenever the thing decides to work. I hate it, but I paid for it and I'm stuck with it. Don't buy. I run windows XP, the Iomega site is not helpful at all. And i've tried applying the patches and it actually made things worse.
Rating:
Summary: Rate zero, Do not purchase
Review: I received this as a Christmas present from my sister. I knew little about CD burners, and my sister knew less! After receiving it, I saw the bad reviews here and began to worry....Fortunately, it works wonderfully for what I wanted it for--burning digital photos. I found the Iomega software to be very confusing at first, but I just ended up bunring ALL my photos on the included DataLifePlus CD. There were hundreds of them, and it took less than 5 minutes. I then viewed them on my PC to make sure they were there! They were. If using the Iomega software, you can just bring up MY Pictures and delete the folders you don't want. Personally, I can't figure out any other way how to just get what folders I want into the work area. But that's probably me. (Of course, if Iomega had included a printed manual, I'd probably be having no problems.)The XP MY PICTURES wizard will not recognize the Iomega, even though the software installed with no problems at all. The Microsoft Digital Image 9 will recognize it, and then say it's archiving the photos onto CD, but it's not--the burner drawer does not open when finished, and there appears to be nothing on the disk, but yet the disk is no longer writable!Fortunately for me, I also have Kodak EasyShare software...and it immediately recognizes the Iomega, and controls it flawlessly. I don't have to use the Iomega software at all. And as I said, it takes just a few minutes to record hundreds of highest quality photos on a Verbatim DataLifePlus disk--the disk PC Photo highly recommends. Music seems to be another matter, but I've not done much with it. I used the Windows Media Player software to record an album on a Verbatim vinyl disk, and although my CD player recognized the disk and the number of songs, it couldn't play them. But note, I do have a compact system, and not a component system, and all compacts are weaker in everything. I then repeated the process with a DataLifePlus CD, and that worked. My CD player played the disk with no problem. I repeated the process a third time using the Iomega software and a DataLifePlus disk, and my CD player once again recognized the number of songs, and was actually playing them, but there was no sound! Later on, when I get a pre-amp, I'll be putting records on CDs, and Iomega's Pro Burn software does have advanced editing features for that. But I think I'll probably end up using my Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition, if it will work.I feel like I probably should be giving the Iomega less than 4 stars...but I can't. It works great and super fast for what I got it for--digial photography. And with the Kodak software, it's all super easy.
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