Toshiba External USB 2.0 Combo Drive > Reviews > Hello Tosh, got a Toshiba

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Excellent
Ease of Installation	Excellent - very quick and easy
Value For Money	Excellent

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

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

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I originally made the mistake of buying the DVD ROM version and at £85 that was next to useless.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 life a lot easier when you have to use it out in the field or are tight for space etc.
When I first plugged the unit in I didn't even have to load up any drivers. Windows XP pro picks the drive up as standard without any troubles.
One thing I forgot to do and didn't get a warning label for was remove the safety card from inside the drive. When you open it up there is a small piece of card covering the lens. Its so small in fact you can insert a CD and wonder why the drive doesn't work…..idiot. So take it out before you use it or read the instructions.

SOFTWARE
Along with the unit you get a software CD containing the following.

User Manuals
Win DVD 5
Sonic Record Now
Drivers

Drivers are for windows XP and or windows 2000. I never really use the software on the CD's so didn't install it, but with them installed you can write CD's etc and play DVD's, all for free and they are not the usual trial versions.
I did have a quick look at the user manuals, which appear to be user friendly and understandable but at the end of it, its only a CD drive, how hard can it be.

OPERATING
Inserting a CD is easy enough. There is a chromed button with operating light on the top front of the unit that you press to open the drive. Insert your CD as normal and off you go. The unit reads/writes at the following speeds.

read: 24x (CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW) 8x (DVD-ROM) 4x (DVD-R, DVD-RW) 1x (DVD-RAM)
write: 24x (CD-R/-RW)

ELSE

As with all Toshiba products you get excellent product support. There is a good support section at www.toshiba.co.uk

I quite like this unit. Looks good and functions well without being no the heavy side. Especially like the easy USB connection and short time it takes to set it up for use. It's a little bi costly but when you see what you get to go with your laptop it makes it worth while.