External Drive

[BruceBanner]

I have tried a few times now failing to burn a 4gb disc (smaller burns have been more successful). After reading the forums I think my drives had it, either way I NEED an external DVD burning drive as I have two other pc's/laptops without a dvd tray so would be handy to have one.

 

Just wondering before taking the plunge and buying if there is any specifics I should worry about.

 

Seeing as some (or all) are powered by usb port only is this enough?) I'm a little worried the burning process will still fail more often than not due to power issues.

 

Any models/makes that are recommended? I had a look at the forum 'Drives' section but they all seemed to be trays rather than external ones.

 

Cheers,

 

Bruce

[dbminter]

About the only gotcha I can say you might have with any random model of USB drive is that it might have a semaphore timeout issue with ImgBurn. This is caused by a combination of certain USB controllers on your computer's motherboard and the USB birdge used inside the USB drive. There's not a known issue around this, as far as I can tell. The only real solutions are to replace the controller, which means replacing the motherboard, or replacing the bridge in the burner, which also means replacing the burner. You could going the route of buying a USB enclosure for a burner and then burning an internal burner to put inside it. As far as good enclosures go that don't have the semaphore timeout issue, I couldn't tell you, sorry.

 

 

As for a known good USB burner that doesn't have the semaphore timeout issue, I've had a Sony DRXU-820A for several years. In fact, I only need to replace it because the eject button no longer works, though software eject still works. In fact, this is because the drive was dropped and it still burns and verifies fine.

 

 

The only other thing I could caution about is not avoid getting a slim line USB burner. From what I've read on the forums, they're not worth the quality for the price. BUT, it seems companies mostly only make them because they're cheaper and people will buy them.