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

...and watch any DVD movie of my choice. {Please note:it works a little slower on USB1} The Freecom can also burn dual layer DVDs which means that, you can get almost double the amount of movies (i.e. up to 8.5GB) on one Dual Layer disk, but they do tend to cost a little more than the standard DVD disks. Another thing that is useful regarding this drive, is that using Nero (that was packaged with the drive), I can back up any computer file I wish to DVD and this gives me 4.7GB (that is 4,812.8 megabytes) of storage on a DVD disk in comparison to 700 MB (megabytes) that can be stored on CD-R or RWs. So as you can imagine, I now have fewer worries of losing my files should my hard drive decide to die on me. I have been amazed at the way the price of the DVD burners have come down in price over the years. When I first became interested in burning... Read review

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Advantages: Loads, price, loads of songs on one CD, portable, one of a kind
Disadvantages: None

...on planes. Batteries are included. There is an AC adapter, a manual which is in English, but it is not hard to work out how the player works, stick in the CD and press play. Included also is one blank 8cm mini CD-R. The CD-Rs: As I have mentioned their price is around £1, they come in their own Jewel case. It is not necessary to but the freecom CDs as the player supports 8cm audio CDs, 8cm CD-Roms, 8com CD-Rs and 8cm CD-RW. You can store 185mb of music on one CD which works out at around 210 minutes of top quality music of 128bitrate. I got the CDs from dabs.com aswell. The Look: Well it looks pretty cool, quite a simple design but it is a see through blue colour on the top and has a black bottom. Well thats about it all I can say is go out and but as the sound quality of these CDs is amazing and the price is good... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, burnproof, easy to install, comes with Nero software
Disadvantages: Relatively expensive

...Well it had to happen didn't it. The only component left over from my old machine has been replaced, and has gone to component heaven (not really, it's actually in the wanted ads, but hey I wanted to wax lyrical), to be replaced by this veritable speed demon. My old cd-writer was a 24 x 2 x 2, Freecom badged Philips drive that took over 36 minutes to burn a full cd, so I decided it was time to upgrade and after much wandering around PC World (I know, I know I'm sorry but they were offering nine months interest free if you spent £200) I chose the TDK Cyclone 12 x 10 x 32 Burnproof Internal IDE drive. I paid (or will be) £179 for the retail pack which comes with the drive (obviously), Nero Burning Rom software, TDK mix master software, cables, marker pen, one cdr and one cdrw. Installation is very easy, just a matter of sliding... Read review

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Advantages: Delivery speed was second to none. Choice of products and order tracking also earn plus points
Disadvantages: The website *can* be a little tricky to navigate for web novices

...searches, and searching for CDRW (which I would've hoped covered both drives and media) only gave me discs. Not much cop. At this point I was thinking "is it worth it?" and then decided to go through the sections listed under the search bar. Clicking Computer Hardware / CD and DVD Drives / CD Rewriters gave me a list of what I was after. Bingo! A long scroll through the lists - there's no option to sort them by price for the stingy likes of me - gave me what I was after. £29.99 for a FREECOM 16x40x10 CD drive. For the non-techy of you that's a 16 speed write (ie writes out a CD up to 16x faster than the standard normal read speed - so a 74min audio CD would take on average 4.5 mins to write), 40 speed read and 10 speed re-write. £29.99 though, I don't care if this was a brand I'd never heard of (further investigation around the Jungle... Read review

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Advantages: Can be moved from PC to PC, lighweight, robust, reliable, fast
Disadvantages: None so far...

...Rewriter that most computers have these days).*** With both drive bays taken up on my PC, I decided on an external DVD Writer drive. Although more expensive than internal drive, it could easily be connected to my lap top should I wish to take my masterpieces and inflict them on people who didn't own DVD players. I jest of course! In PC world, there were several external DVD drives on the shelves, but having had an external CD writer by Freecom which had been extremely reliable, I opted for the High Speed (USB2) Classic DVD+/-RW Double Layer model. It was the most expensive at just over £120 at the time (much cheaper now, see below), but the best available. The Hardware: In the box was a black DVD RW which was slim and lightweight (it was also available in white), the USB connector cable, the power transformer/cable (PSU- power supply unit... 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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Advantages: fast when running correctly
Disadvantages: quite bulky and noisy

...If you are looking for a fast external CD rewriter, this one is for you. It is quite bulky and noisy but it has loads of good points too. This review covers why I chose this CD re-writer, problems I have encountered, system requirements, what you get in the box, the software that is bundle with the item and a conclusion. Why this one? ***************** The first CD-rewriter I owned was the Freecom Classic Series 4x 4x 4x, which was a slower version of this one. A colleague broke this one, so I decided to upgrade to something faster. I couldn't have an internal one because of the built in sound card that I have in my PC and I didn't want to upgrade everything just to put a rewriter drive in. I stuck with what I new and purchased the new Freecom Classic Series 52x 24x 52x. It is very fast and can copy a whole 750mb music CD in around 5... Read review

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Advantages: seemed sturdy and well-liked
Disadvantages: actually stopped working within a month of purchase date

...I purchased this "Toughdrive" to store my ever-growing digital music collection. It would work sporadically, often turning itself off. I emailed Freecom, who informed me it was a power related issue (they send you a free power adapter if you live in the UK). One marketed feature of the Freecom Toughdrive is that it derives its power from the USB port, and hence doesn't require any extra plugs. As a consequence, they are not sold with the necessary component to operate properly with low-powered notebooks. By this point, my Mac iBook wouldn't even detect that it was plugged in to the USB port. I got my power adapter, (which I had to buy from another company because I live outside the UK), and it STILL doesn't work. I want to return it, but can't because it has all my files on. AVOID THIS PRODUCT AT ALL COSTS!... Read review

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Advantages: Small footprint, USB connectivity, good capacity, quiet
Disadvantages: All the above completely let down by the units reliability

...Please take a few seconds to rate this at the end - it helps me know if its meaningful or not and I can improve accordingly Ok... Its big...its black...it hums quietly in the corner. Oh..and its made by Freecom - a manufacturer I previously thought was pretty reliable (I have their dual layer portable DVD re-writer as well). This drive is billed as being rugged and portable - after all that is the whole point of external portable drives, isnt it? When I got the unit, it was twice as big in capacity as the HDD in my tower PC, so I immediately throught - backup. It didnt come with any back-up soft ware though, which I think is a glaring omission. No matter, I thought, I will back up my photos (10,000+), music (14,000 tracks), etc into folders I create myself. Connection simply means attaching the power cable to a free socket... Read review

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Advantages: GOOD VALUE FOR MONEY AND PORTABLE.
Disadvantages: NOT THAT KNOWN.

...My getting of this product was for one major reason, and that was for expansion of my memory storage capacity in my system. Normally my 20gb hard drive is now packed with stored information and before I bought this, I was forced to compress information if it would be possible but since it was not possible, I went for this and from what I am seeing, this will be able to store as much information as possible. The freecom storage device comes in a black shinny portable rectangle shape. This has served me well for quite some time so I am happy with it. Well my previous 20gb hard drive device has tried for me but for the fact that I am the type that fill my storage device with pictures being capable of consuming more space than ordinary documents I needed a more storage hard drive device capacity. Well I had a lot of good impressions... Read review

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