LG Electronics 8X USB 2.0 Super Multi Ultra Slim Portable DVD+/-RW External Drive with M-DISC Support, Retail (Silver) GP60NS50

My sons hard drive crashed on his recently (~1 year old) built gaming computer. To save space, minimize power consumption and heat production we decided to go with a Memo**x external drive (of course he had to have it right away and we payed out the wazoo at a box store for it). We loaded the OS, put the drive away and had ~ a year of play time. Fast forward to Feb and his hard drive crashes. No big deal we buy a new HD, hook up the Memo**x drive and .........., nothing, other than some lights and sounds of a DVD drive failing, nothing. This time we decided to look on Amazon for a more cost effective alternative and came across the 20 something dollar drive, plugged it in and it immediately did what we needed it to do. We boxed it up, put the computer back together and got back to business. Hmmmm, I started thinking.....I wonder if it will work twice (unlike the Memo**x), pulled it out of the box, plugged it in and YES!!!!!!! it worked.

Plug-and-Play on my Macs–I was watching a DVD within fifteen seconds of opening the box. Its quiet–the only time I hear it is when it first gets power or you load or stop a DVD, and that lasts for just a couple of seconds. It is perfectly quiet during Play. Ive had no problems with its response to any control functions I issue either by using my mouse or my remote control. So far Ive used it about a couple of dozen DVDs. Ill edit this post if I encounter problems in the future. I cant speak for the software disk that comes with it since you dont need that stuff for Macs.

I have loaded about 40 music CDs into My MacBook Air with this device and it works fine. My advice is, to disregard the very vague instructions and do the following . Turn your computer on , attach the LG writer to the computer with the included cable, open the CD tray with the eject button ,insert the included media suite 10 disc, let it run , eject that and load a CD , close the tray , it will show up in the finder section of the mac. and it will pop up on the screen and click to down load into your music. This only applies to a Mac. Im giving this 4 stars because I have not used it enough yet . I have had a number of these in wireless form and sent them all back and decided to try a cabled type writer . The cable will disconnect if the writer is moved around while in use .

Works great, but I made the mistake of overlooking the fact that since my laptop has no internal disc drive, it also does not have the corresponding (and very necessary) software. This one came with a trial version (try everything but the part you need version) that runs $60 - $99, depending upon the package you buy. I wanted a device to load DVD movies into the hard drive of my laptop and thats what I got--minus the software. So, if your goal is similar, know that youll need to invest in the software upgrade or some other package before youll be able to accomplish your task. Otherwise, its a good player with very little noticeable noise.

Okay I literally just received this in the mail. Before I continue... if you are wanting to know anything about the dvd WRITER part, I will have no information for you, since thats not at all why I bought it :( I will post an update after using it more but for now, let me just say this: -I bought this for my new MacBook Air, which obviously doesnt have a built-in optical drive. -I REALLY only wanted this in order to export songs from cds onto my iTunes, since Im one of those people who STILL buys cds to support certain artists. And also to maybe watch a dvd here and there in my bedroom since I only have a tv in my living room. (But probably not often.) -This one in particular had the highest rating over all the other drives for this price range, including the ones that mentioned nothing about being a dvd writer and were just plain ol external cd/dvd drives. -I went through allllllll the reviews, like I usually do, and noticed that people said I could do the things I wanted to with it, so I went ahead and just got it despite a lot of the negative or mixed reviews. -I literally opened the box, took it out of its packaging, plugged it into my computer, and loaded a cd in it..... it IMMEDIATELY popped up in my iTunes with a pop-up that asked me if I wanted to import the songs. I did and a few minutes later, my songs were on iTunes :) Yay! -I did notice how loud it is during the importing part, but since this is all I am really using it for, I could care less. It just sounds like a computer thats working. The sound went away completely once it was done importing and was just sitting in the drive. -After that, I switched the cd with a dvd.... Once again, the movie literally just popped up and started playing right away. The sound from the movie COMPLETELY drowned out the loud sound the driver makes. I couldnt hear it at all and it was just the MGM Lion roaring and whatever other sounds come after that part at the beginning of a movie. -I am not that tech savvy so I didnt do a dang thing prior to this. I actually have hardly anything installed on my MacBook since its still very new. So thats genuinely all it took to get my cds on iTunes and to play a dvd. Im not even sure what program it used to play the dvd, but obviously something that is already on the MacBook. Once again, Ill post an update after Ive used it a few times or more time has passed by, but so far its EXACTLY what I was looking for. SO glad I didnt get discouraged by the negative reviews!!

Bought this because it claimed to work with XP Pro. IT DOES NOT. Install disk loaded a mass of useless eye-candy software, but no driver or burner-manager for XP Pro. Some of this junk software autoloads on bootup AND REFUSES TO DELETE, which means hours and hours of backing-up, wiping and reloading my hard drive. Id rather have a virus! Those I can get rid of with McAfee, Spybot, or Malwarebytes. Seller was zero help. Mfgr. site does not support this model at all. (But it tries like crazy to sell you another one!) Final indignity is that the ( USB ) power demand is so great that it overloads the power-supply in my Dell laptop, causing it to shut down completely at random moments. I have wasted a whole day trying to sort this thing out, and will lose another whole day rebuilding my hard drive. Am returning it for refund, but where to I go to get my wasted time back ????

when I first unpacked this I thought it was too flimsy to be any good. while it is certainly lightweight, it is certainly a workhorse. PROS: it works like a champ, for many hours at a stretch, never stumbles or overheats, just steadily works away perfectly in the background. not a single complaint about its performance, which I consider to be stellar CONS: a bit hard to set up, its not plug and play. if you are using a mac it requires some minor fiddling, nothing major, but if you dont know your way around a mac you might run into some frustration. this is LGs fault as the disc included manual does not cover macs. Im assuming windows users will be just fine. dont know. this thing is a lightweight and requires some holding to get discs in and out. not a big problem. I dont think heftier ones are available except for a much heftier price tag, but they couldnt perform any better than this unit in short, I am very pleased with my purchase and the price was great! FYI: I did not receive anything for writing this review.