ASUS LITE Portable USB 2.0 Slim 8X DVD/ Burner +/- Rewriter External Drive, Compatible with both Mac & Windows, White (SDRW-08D2S-U/W/G/ACI/AS)

On first inspection this drive seems flimsy, and it is somewhat. It's basically the electronics of a drive with a plastic case, pretty light. The tray simply pops open but does not extend to allow access. You have to pull the tray open. I was cautious at first as I was afraid I'd pull the tray out of the case. Takes a little practice to seat a disk in the tray.I didn't install any software, though it came with a software disk. I simply connected the supplied cable and connected it to my Mac mini and put in a cd. The green light started flashing - which amused the cat - and the disk image appeared on the desktop. ITunes recognized the disk immediately and I was able to listen to a cd, then import some cds to the hard drive, efficiently and with no difficulty. I had one error message that there was a problem with the disk but it turned out that the disk was not completely seated, hence the earlier note. The unit recognized a dvd when inserted and it mounted and played with no difficulty. I have not tried burning any disks so can't speak to that yet. When I do so I'll update.I gave this five stars as, so far, it has performed well as what it purports to be: an inexpensive, portable optical drive, which is what I was looking for.I use it connected to a Mac mini, OS 10.85.***Update/NB: I paid $29.99 for mine. The current price given is higher.

I decided to purchase this instead of the expensive Apple disk drive for my Macbook Pro Retina. This is a great, cheap alternative. It works without having to install anything (on Mac, at least) and rips disks very well. One thing I will say is that the drive has two USB ports to connect into your computer. Only one of these USB ports transfers data, and the other is used to provide extra power to speed up the burning/ripping process. The cord for the second USB plug (the power one) is extremely short, so you may want to invest in a USB Extender (I recommend AmazonBasic's model: http://amzn.com/B001TH7GUU). However, if you're fine with having a bit slower rips and burns, you can use the single USB (for data and power) and it will still work just fine.

I just bought the Asus Vivobook S400ca with Windows 8 and wanted an external dvd/cd player to go along with it. The device looks good and works really well; however, the setup was slightly confusing. The software that comes with the device is soley for burning & copying cds, no media player software is included so I had a hard time figuring out how to actually get my dvds to play. However after a few google searches, I realized that this was mostly an issue with Windows 8 (which does not include DVD movie playback). Instead, you must download a media player online. After reading a couple of reviews/suggestions, I decided to install VLC Media Player, which fixed my problem immediately. Overall, the device is great, but it would have helped if the instructions were a bit more clear :)

Initially the drive worked great without any fuss. 2 months later, the drive could no longer read anything off the disk. Asus website is very cryptic, and Amazon's warranty has already expired! Seems like I wasted my money with a cheap product.On the bright side, it is kind a cool looking surface. I am thinking of serving sushi on top.

I'm glad I ordered this one because it has lasted over seven years before dying. I used it occasionally throughout those years and it worked fine. It had a little noise when it was spinning but not bad. It was slim and easy to store. I would recommend it if you are looking for something like this.

While I do like the product, I was disappointed to learn that it does not have the stand, which is why I selected it to begin with.

I specifically bought this drive because it could sit vertically on it's stand, however NO stand is included. Very misleading description and image.

La unidad funciona bien, tiene un diseño bonito y viene bien protegida en su caja. La carcasa se aprecia de un plástico de baja calidad.