Iomega 52x CD-RW/DVD-ROM USB 2.0 External Drive plus 7-in-1 Card Reader

Advantages: Quality Build, No messing inside your PC, Bundled Software
Disadvantages: Maybe a bit pricey.

...Having only a 52xCD rom in my rather dull (but quite adequate) IBM workstation I was missing the ability to burn cd’s backing up data important data that I could with previous machines. Not fancying taking the lid of, and removing fiddly blanking plates - scraping skin off my thumbs, I decided upon the external USB approach, since like most, the PC is equipped with a fast USB2.0 interface. The Iomega CD-RW 48x24x48x USB 2.0 drive appeared to be a good choice, Iomega being a well trusted and reliable manufacturer. I paid around £60 , but you may find it cheaper if you shop around. I did come across lesser brands with a similar spec at lower prices, but I felt they would lack the quality. Upon opening, I was presented with a very solid piece of kit in a jet black finish. The box also contained a suitable USB cable, a figure of eight... Read review

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Advantages: Small, looks very cool
Disadvantages: Noe really, does what it says it does

...Toshiba External USB 2.0 Combo Drive INTRO Along with my recent office purchase of the R200 laptop and seeing as it was minus a CDROM I bought an external CD unit. I originally made the mistake of buying the DVD ROM version and at £85 that was next to useless. So I returned that and got the Toshiba External USB2 Combo Drive. There are a few different ones out there, this one wrote CD's and read DVD's. IMPRESSIONS When you open the box up your greeted with what first looks like an MP3 player. Size wise its not much bigger than a CD. The finish of this one was brushed aluminium to match the R200 laptop. Quality is easily very high, just like Toshiba's other offerings. If nothing else the Combo drive looks cool. CONNECTION The combo drive is connected up with a standard USB 2 cable. Not external power supplies are needed. This makes... Read review

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Advantages: ummmmm
Disadvantages: Doesn't work very well, slow, intermitently recognises disks, poor back up service, need I go on?

...I ordered my Freecom DVD Recorder LS USB 2.0 after my CD/DVD drive packed up on my 15 month old HP Desktop. I wanted it mainly to load CD ROM and burn DVD's from movies already converted to DVD format on my hard drive. Being that my PC had no disk drive I relied upon this external drive to load the bundled DVD burning software (Roxio 9). This took several days and many attempts. Then I tried burning my first DVD. After taking 3 hours to do a task that previously took about 30 minutes, this recorder produced a disc that no dvd player in my home recognised (and I have 4). I found the user interface very unfriendly and it simply didn't work. Needles to say, I'll be getting a refund!... Read review

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