CD-RW in style

Advantages: Looks great
Disadvantages: Looks too good for the rest of my stuff

...OK, OK, there are faster CD-RW out there and of course there are now DVD-R that give you that extra bit of storage but this little beauty is just what the doctor ordered. TDK have managed to deliver a great package here both with hardware and the software supplied. They have released faster versions which will please all you speed freaks out there, but with a limited budget and not wanting something so flashy it even makes me a cup of tea in the morning, I settled for this model. Inside the Box... After emptying the contents of the box like a child at Christmas, I was faced with a good looking drive that does look a bit more than the standard cream coloured CD-RW drives out there, with a transparent blue tray popping out with a press of the eject button and the smooth lines of the front panel, this drive just looks great in my...

tomok 14.05.2002 · Read review
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Review of TDK CyClone CD-RW drive

Iomega CD-RW

Advantages: Can burn music, pictures and other data
Disadvantages: Quite Slow

...This Iomega Rewriter is a good little piece of machinery, but it does takes it time when burning. Its supposed to take a few minutes to burn a music disc, although it took 20 minutes for an average length CD. ..:Installation:.. Installing the product will take the best part of 45minutes, it comes up with junk about not being compatatible with you operating system when it clearly is. Registering the product can be annoying as well because it asks for information you will not want to give (phone number, address etc.) ..: Burning CD's :.. Burning can take up to and around 20 mins for about 20 3 minute tracks. Selecting what you want put on the CD is a confusing process. As you have to individual copy and paste each song rather than clicking on it and getting it on the cd straight away. Its quite good of informing you of its status...

james564 12.12.2004 · Read review
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Review of Iomega CD-RW CD-RW drive

Memorex-cellent value 12x CD writer

Advantages: Cheap and comparable to the more expensive Plextor
Disadvantages: Easy CD is maybe not as good as WinOnCD and support is vague

...Are you fed up waiting for that dodgy copy of you mates cd to burn? Tired of watching how slow your pathetic, unbadged, 2 speed cdwriter spits out those copies? Or maybe you're lukcy, and have a 4 speed cdwriter. Maybe even an 8 speed one. Now that's not bad now, is it - what is that, around 10 mins a cd? That's not bad. Now consider what it would be like to burn cd's in around 6 minutes. Now I'm not trying to be like that serial murderer blokey out of There's Something About Mary - you know, the one who goes on about his idea for the "8 minute abs video", only to be told "What if someone comes out with '7 minute abs'?" - cos I know that you're going to tell me there are faster drive around, before you say it! ;-) The drive I am writing this opinion about is the Memorex TwelveMaxx 1032. It is a 12 speed CD writer drive, which is...

MikeWhalley 25.04.2001 · Read review
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Review of Memorex CD-RW drive

Some Extra Cheap Storage Space On CD-RW's

Advantages: Re-Writable CD, 74min record time, 650MB storage
Disadvantages: Small storage compared to Re-Writable DVD's

...The Imation CD-RW 650 MB 24x discs are an excellent way to back up or store data at home or at work. I know it's not much storage compared to DVD-RW's but these still come in use as I still use them sometimes myself. As sometimes you don't need 4.7GB that a DVD can hold. Imation CD-RW rewritable discs have an increased recording speed of 24x and noise free play for a wide range of applications. Even though the CD-RW format requires speed compatible disc burners for recording, the discs can be used in standard CD-R/RW drives as well as Multi-read CD-R/CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and rewritable DVD drives. This is very useful as you may have a drive which can handle more speed which shouldn't have a compatibility issue. Main features and functions: - Storage media type CD-RW - 10 discs - 650 MB storage - 74min recording time - Write...

Surj1 17.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of Imation Corp. CD-RW 650 MB 24x

Freecom Classic Trouble Free DVD Burning

Advantages: Hard Working and reliable. Can be moved from PC to PC
Disadvantages: Desk space needed because it's external.

...I've owned my external Freecom CD RW for some time now, and it has given me excellent service, even though I have "hammered" it, burning DVD after DVD of years of stockpiled home video footage. Time after time, I have had great results with just one unsuccessful burn, but that was a faulty disk -which happens sometimes. When I first went in search of a DVD Re-writer, I was very tempted by getting an internal one to save desk-space and they were cheaper. But after some consideration I opted for the external because we have two computers and a laptop and it's just a question of plugging it in to the USB port of any machine I want to work with. Because it also plays DVD movies, it makes it really handy when I am having that long week-end staying at relatives and there's nothing to watch on TV. I can simply plug it into my laptop...

derek-j-a 14.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Freecom Classic CD-RW drive

Compatibility hell.

Advantages: Good drive, reliable, quick
Disadvantages: Hard to get software to work/recognise it

...When I recently took my father in law to PC World to buy him a CD Writer for his computer, I expected to send him on his merry way within minutes of my return home. As with most pieces of hardware that I have bought, I just stick it in, turn it on and hey presto....Everything works. Well this is not the case with the Artec CR-RW drive. A slimline internal drive with excellent writing speeds, I imagined it to be the ideal solution for him. INSTALLATION. So I unpacked the box with the drive and found a new IDE lead and Audio/soundcard cable. I even found a version of Nero copying software all nicely packaged with it. Bargain, or so I thought. So using my existing screws ( there were none in the box unfortunately. Loose brownie points there), I bolted the new CD writer in. I plugged the power cable from my computer in...

andycharger 04.12.2003 · Read review
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Review of Artec CD-RW CD-RW drive

CD Burner Paradise for 84 Pounds

Advantages: Cheap, fast, reliable, good software
Disadvantages: No fancy box to throw away

...Fancy a CD-RW drive? Don’t waste your money on a £140 model; there is one for £84 that will do everything you need. My first CD-RW burner cost over £200 and had the amazing record speed of 2x. The old Memorex still works well, but I wanted a new burner for a different desktop PC and did not want to spend a lot. The Samsung SW-408 from redstore.com doesn’t come in a fancy box (who likes paying extra for the box anyway?) but is supplied with a good instruction book, a spare drive to audio cable and a CD with all the software you need to be up and running in minutes. It records a 8x in both CDR and CD-RW mode and reads at 32x. For £84 you get a reliable burner with OPC for consistent recording on a disc with dust or fingerprints. It also supports variable packet CD-R, variable and fixed packet which means that you...

john.sw 24.04.2001 · Read review
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Review of Samsung CD-RW SW-408

BURN BABY BURN

Advantages: CAN BE FAST AND CHEAP
Disadvantages: COASTERS CAN BE REALLY ANNOYING!

...Reading other reviews on this subject mention that 'buffer under-run' is an annoying problem to overcome. However, from my experience it is not dependent on which operating system you are running, (although this may have a slight affect) but what type of CD-RW drive you have, the speed it runs at and the quality of the CD-R media being used. There are many things that can go wrong during a burn process, so i'm going to talk about some of the ones that I know about and how I have solved them. Buffer under-run ---------------- What does it mean? "In order to make CD-DA/CD-ROM compatible discs, it is necessary to write the data constantly on the discs. However, data stream speed is not always constant, especially when starting up other applications, such as the Internet. Further, if an unexpected error occurs on the source...

mdstone 02.10.2003 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice On Using CD-R and CD-RW Drives

The Burning Truth

Advantages: Get it right and it all looks professional
Disadvantages: Get it wrong and you write useless CDs and don't get the most out of your hardware/software

..., there is software that allows you to treat a CD-RW as a floppy disk, but I have not heard anybody recommending such software so have not risked trying it. You can write CDRs into lots of things, Data, Audio, Video CD, Photo CD etc etc? this opinion will also give you hints as to how to optimize burning these sorts of media (which is the only non-patronizing part of this opinion). ?What do you need? Well obviously you need a CD-RW drive to write CDs, you can pick a decent one for about £70 and it will come with some CD writing software. The rest of this opinion will assume that you have Nero Burning ROM 5.5 (I have 5.5.7.8), if you don?t have Nero 5.5 or better, get it from ftp.nero.com (port: 21 user: anon) and ask a friend for a key to take it for a trail, if you don?t have a friend with a key, ask me and I?ll provide you a key...

Modena 25.05.2002 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice On Using CD-R and CD-RW Drives

Rip And Burn - Violent, Ain't It

Advantages: CD recording drives are fairly inexpensive and provide a very fast and easy way to permanently store the contents of your hard drive or CD-ROMs.
Disadvantages: Some drives will crap out after a short time. You cannot re-record CD-R discs. There are a few limitations, but otherwise it's a great system.

...Depot, or even that nasty Best Buy) and pick up a CD-R drive for less than one hundred dollars. It will include all cables necessary to hook it up inside of my computer as well as software that will enable me to install the drive and record various files to blank discs. Still, the most common write speed is 6x – very slow considering that we have CD-ROM drives that read at speeds of over 52x. However, some are capable of writing at 12x – or higher if you want to pay three hundred dollars or more for a decent drive. Many companies have gotten in on this technology – from Hewlett-Packard and Sony to off-name brands that are found at local computer outlets. Many have gotten their hands onto CD-RW technology – Compact Disc Re-Writeable. This means that, if you buy CD-RW discs, you can write data over the disc...

Sarah_B 18.12.2001 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice On Using CD-R and CD-RW Drives