Home > Consumer Reviews > 8X DVDrw Ext USB Drive Red

I order two of these drives and one for myself and one for a friend. Setup was easy. I did not use the Roxio disk that came with it. I use other software to use for the lightscribe writting and the drive works well for me. I use this Item with my acer notebook and it runs good with it.
I found out that the roxio software can cause problems with other programs.
All you need to do is go to wwww.lightscribe.com and download the software from there.
and to make lables you can go to www.acoustica.com and download there cd/dvd lable maker software. these two items will make your drive work well.

This external DVD writer has a wide range of functions, is very affordable, and is compact and lightweight. I've previously purchased and installed six internal DVD writers from Lite-On (all for builds or upgrades) so made this selection with confidence. This drive is USB powered, requiring use of TWO USB ports for operation (they should be adjacent due to the cable). It ships with a stand (for vertical use) that is nice and heavy.

The drive also ships with an external AC adapter. You should only need this if you are taking advantage of the LightScribe disc labeling function.

The unit I received was bundled with Nero 7 Essentials. Like other recent versions of Nero, this package is somewhat bloated. The install options allow you to deselect components (do so freely with Nero Home, Nero Scout, Nero InCD and whatever else isn't something you will obviously need) you don't want to use. Be advised that if you want to use the LightScribe capability, then include Nero's Cover Designer in your install options.

Finally: in order to get any of the Nero package to install, I had to disconnect from the Internet. The install routine launches a browser window connection to Nero's site that I could not exit from --and therefore could not proceed with the install.

Once I turned off my network adapter, the install continued just fine. This Nero-related issue is the reason this is a 4-star (and not a 5-star) review.

In order to discover the cause of the halted install, I had to find instances of the browser running in Windows Task Manager (something that non-Firefox users may not have discovered, and something that many users might not have tried). The software that ships with hardware should install smoothly, and NOT require troubleshooting from unnecessary processes...

This is really a great buy, esp if you have a UMPC or net book~!

This is a very functional small, light-weight, portable dvd writer. Travels well and works effectively and speedily. For portability, a more compact transformer would be nice