StarTech Slim DVD-RW Drive Review

Has your laptop or desktop DVD or CD drive kicked the bucket? Does your laptop or desktop only have a CD burner and not a DVD burner? Have you neglected purchasing a DVD burner because of high prices and inflated installation fees? Would you like to have the capability to watch DVD movies in high resolution on your desktop or laptop? Would you like to easily backup your movies and data to high storage media such as DVD? (A dual layer DVD will hold over 8GB of data. That is roughly 16,000 2mb high resolution photos or 8,000 4mb mp’3s on just one disc) To put that in perspective, if you took 450 high resolution photos every day for a year, you could store all those precious memories on just one disk. WOW!

If you answered yes to any of those questions above then you may want to consider purchasing an InfoSafe External Slim USB 2.0 DVD +/- RW Dual Layer drive from Startech.com. This slim external DVD and CD burner features a high quality Panasonic drive. The drive is sleek, elegant, compact, fast, reliable, and very quite. It is also a snap to setup and use.
Recently I received an InfoSafe External Slim USB 2.0 DVD +/- RW Dual Layer drive from Startech.com to try out. It’s great to have around with me in my laptop bag when traveling because my laptop doesn’t have a built DVD-RW drive. Previously, I purchased a different model DVD-RW external drive that was heavy, large, and required an external power source. The bulky drive wouldn’t fit in my laptop bag and was very inconvenient to use. The InfoSafe External Slim drive has completely eliminated those inconveniences. Before owning this drive, I use to have to crawl under beds and desks in hotels rooms to find an available power source, only to find out my power cord would not reach from my bed. Not any more!

For installation, all I had to do was plug in the two USB cords to my pc and that was it. I didn’t have to fumble around with installing additional drivers. This device is truly plug and play. After the drive was detected I popped in the included Nero 7 Essentials. The Nero Essentials DVD and CD burning software is the perfect package for all your DVD backup and viewing needs.

This external drive doesn’t even need to be plugged into an external power source, albeit it does have an included power adaptor. The power adaptor isn’t necessary to use unless your computer doesn’t have two available USB ports. Most computers today have plenty additional USB ports available so most people will probably never have to use the power adaptor.

Did I mention it’s great for when traveling with the kids? My car does not have a power adaptor so in the past my kids couldn’t watch their favorite DVD movies on my laptop. Now, when we travel I just charge up the laptop and plug in the Infosafe External drive and the kids enjoy their favorite movies from the backseat of the car. How’s that for a peaceful driving experience?

Furthermore, I was so impressed with InfoSafe External drive that I plan on purchasing a second one as a gift for my parents. My parents are older and their desktop computer sits under their computer desk. I get tired of them having to get down in the floor just to insert a disk into their computer. Needless to say they will be very pleased with their new external DVD drive that sits nicely in reach of their fingertips, right next to their computer monitor.

In closing, no additional power cords, along with its small size and light weight make it a perfect accessory to carry along with a laptop during your travels or to use as the primary drive for your desktop pc. It is about the size of a DVD movie case, very attractive, very quiet, and easy to use.

Overview of features:
• No external power source required – This remarkable drive powers itself from
• Supports both USB 2.0 and 1.1 – Which means it’s compatible with both older and newer computers. Of course you will get a faster read and write speeds if your computer supports USB 2.0. But many older PC’s have USB 1.1 ports and I want to be able to use this external drive on any computer I plug it in to.
• Easy installation – If your computer is running Windows 2000 or higher you don’t even have to install a driver. Just plug and play.
• Media Support – This drive reads and writes all popular CD and DVD formats out there, including dual layer DVD’s.
• Impressive Speed - Provides 5x DVD-RAM write speeds, 8x (DVD+RW), and 6x (DVD-RW) I was able to burn a full 4.7 DVD in just under 12 minutes and a 750mb CD in under 5 minutes.
• Backup Large amounts of personal data – With a dual layer DVD I can store over 16,000 high resolution photos on just on disk.

And that’s just some of the many great features you will get with the InfoSafe External Slim USB 2.0 DVD +/- RW Dual Layer drive from Startech.com

This extensive tech review was brought to you by the dad behind Paintshopblog.com

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