Kanguru DVDrw Drive

Before I purchased this product I read all the reviews. Several were negative--especially explaining theproduct was noisy. Still because of a 30 day return policy I decided to purchase this. The install wasplug and play with no problems. I did not install the software that came with it because in the pastNero has conflicted with other software on my computer. This product worked flawlessly with the softwareI already use. You can hear a noise when the product is in use. That noise is the fan running. It isnot so loud that it is a problem. The fact that the fan keeps the product cool when it is burning far atout weighs what little noise you hear. This product has an on off switch on the back. You only need toturn it on when you are using it. So it is quiet the rest of the time. Over the years I have usedseveral brands of burners. I like this one better than any I have had.

i'm really not rating the hardware. but the software included with it (nero kwik media) is very complicated as far as i'm concerned. i still haven't figured out how to burn cds with it. i will have to do a little more studying in hopes of figuring it out. but on first glance, i didn't find it very user friendly.

This drive appears to be solidly built. I use it on both a Mac and a PC,and it installed seamlessly on both, plug and play. I've burned about 20 normal DVD's with absolutely no problems. Only down side is that it is a very noisy device. That's not a big problem to me since I use it only occasionally and turn it off when it's not needed. But if you want to leave it on all the time, or use it to actually watch DVD's,you will not be happy with the noise level.

I sought to purchase an external lightscribe DVD burner specifically because the burner on my computer does not offer lightscribe. While searching Amazon for a good lightscribe burner, I selected the "lightscribe" feature in the left hand column of the site. After which I found this Kanguru burner and was attracted to the price. Right in the middle of the product description it states "The LightScribe label burning allows you to burn custom labels onto your LightScribe compatible CD or DVD media." There was not a doubt in my mind that this was a lightscribe burner. IT'S NOT! Kanguru has not made a lightscribe burner in over 3 years. I bought this for business purposes, now I'm going to be late and I have 2 useless DVD burners. Another reviewer pointed out the same issue.

The drive works fine, but it is ridiculously loud. The drive itself (i.e., when a disc is inserted and it spins up) doesn't seem noisy, but the fan in the unit is really, really loud. I've used it for a couple of months now and I turn the unit off whenever I am not actively using it. I'm getting rid of this drive and replacing it with something less noisy. It's a shame because the unit has all the features I was looking for and I would like it a lot if it weren't for the excessive noise.Follow up: I opened the drive and removed the fan. I've already ordered a different drive so I figured I would see how much of the noise was coming from the fan. The drive is virtually silent after the fan was removed. I'd rate this drive five stars if it operated out of the box like it does now....it is almost completely silent. I don't know how long it will run without a fan but it will be worth it to find out. If it seems like it is getting hot, I may just remove the top cover and leave it off. It wouldn't look great that way but anything is better than listening to that jet-engine noise coming from from the fan.

I love this machine. I ordered it because I have finally embarked upon ripping all the music I have on CDs to my computer. I have around 500-600 CDs. I had been using one of the ubiquitous slim style external drives since the original in my tower died long ago. The slim drive was getting very hot to the touch after several CDs, and this worried me. Also, it had trouble reading some CDs, including one that was slightly warped. The Kanguru had no trouble reading the warped CD, with it's full disc tray. Also, The Kanguru has a fan that runs continuously, which is helping with my project. I also like the size of the machine, and the sturdiness of the rubber feet, so that the machine does not buzz around like the slim drive, which I'm sure also contributed to errors on the slim drive.I have an old Dell still running XP. This drive was plug and play, no headaches there, at all.Ripping the warped CD, I used iTunes to create Apple Lossless files with error protection on (since I had so many errors with that CD in the past). It worked perfectly, with iTunes reporting speeds over 30x, and the process took less than 2 minutes.

Although the fan is noisy, that probably means that it will not overheat. Amazon should state that in addition to Windows and Mac, it works great with Linux. In fact, as I write this it is burning a DVD on my newer Linux desktop unit that has USB 2.0 ports. Earlier I burned one on my older machine that only has USB 1.1 ports (of course, more slowly). In both cases I used the free K3b burning software. Ubuntu and probably most other distributions already have the necessary drivers so it is just a matter of plugging it in and using it.

I bought this to work with my new Notebook but I have been having a lot of trouble with my Notebook & it's in the repair shop now so I haven't used this product a lot yet. When I did use it it is fairly fast at burning. I don't use the software that came with it . It seems to be well built-sturdy. It's plug and play so its very easy to use. I like the "on-off" button. Other people say its noisy. Hey we live on Earth where nothings perfect! It's a minor detail to me. Turn it off when you are not using it if that is a problem for you. It's very quite when it's turned off. :) I would highly recommend this product to everyone who needs an external DVD-CD reader-writer.Cons: This unit is USB 2.0 Not a big problem still pretty fast due to AC powered.