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Rating: 
Summary: Can't Beat This Drive for Ease of Use - So Friendly, So Fun!
Review: Background: I have burned lots of CDs but never had my own burner. I bought this drive for its USB connectivity (one drive I'll use on many PCs).I expected installation to be a pain (on every PC). I expected it would be hard to use for making copies. I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG! It took me longer to unpack the box than it did to install the drive. Total time for both: 10 minutes. Instructions: insert USB cable, one floppy in drive...2 minutes later: ready to go. Awesome! Once installed, software is a BREEZE. Start yourself off by inserting a blank disk and you never have to look for the software in your start/programs/etc.. It AUTOMATICALLY pops up with the right window -- if the CD is blank, it asks: What do you want to do? An Easy Menu then takes you right to the program you need. Insert a blank CD-RW and it will format it in the background; insert one that is already formatted and it doesn't annoy you with any windows/menus -- just go right ahead and use it. It passed my wife's skepticism with a new record: no complaints, nothing but "wows". She inserted a blank CD-R, one click on the menu to the right software, inserted a disc to copy. Bingo, started copying. 10 min later, she's got a copy and no fuss. The combination of CD-R and USB isn't the speediest and I've coasterized a couple of discs, but I'd trade coasters for the ease-of-use that this drive provides -- in a heartbeat. If anyone from HP is reading this, congrats gang, because this really isn't like an HP product of yesteryear -- it is simple to use and fun right out of the box. Keep making products like this -- Please! Ease of use - 5 stars Performance - 3 stars Fun - 5 stars Value - 4 stars (versus other USB CD-Rs) Overall 5 Stars
Rating: 
Summary: Does the job reliably
Review: I got one of these back in mid-2000. It's been quite reliable. I actually got it used, because I had a defective drive from another outfit (Iomega). I then tested someone else's drive (the one I have now) on my Mac with Toast 4, which worked. I went out and bought an 8230e, the kind available at the time. It didn't work, so I traded with the friend for his drive.
It's worked reliably, and rarely produces a bad disk. Even though it doesn't advertise so, it works with Toast for Mac. It doesn't include any Mac software. I wouldn't have bought it afterwards because it's not particularly fast and the computer I bought at the New Year of 2001 had FireWire. But it's served me well over the past few years, and will be subject to less use when the new iMac comes.
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