SANOXY SANOXY-EXT-Slim-CD_DVDR Portable USB 2.0 External CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive, White

EDIT: Many negative reviews exist. Perhaps quality of this product varies? Note this before you risk the purchase. ORIGINAL: I looked at the price of this item and was immediately hesitant. I thought I was taking a risk because all of the similar items were must more expensive. I took the risk. The item arrived a bit earlier than expected, which was excellent. The only problem I had with the device was due to a fault of my netbook. The device was installed and worked well, but it could not play my DVD immediately because my computer lacked a proper codec. I installed the proper codecs and shortly after was able to play my dvd. The drive works well. Positives: It is small It is sufficiently quiet It was inexpensive It attaches via two USB ports It does not slide. (There are slide-stoppers on the bottom of the device.) It has almost no lag. It has successfully installed software off of one of my CDs. Negatives: It did not come with instructions, albeit they were not necessary. It feels slightly cheap, but not to the extent that it seems fragile. I recommend this product.

I thought I would review this since it seemed to have mixed reviews. I decided to purchase this because the price was great for a cd/dvd player/burner. I bought it for my Toshiba netbook NB 305 which operates on Windows XP. It worked right when I plugged it in. I immediately tried to play a music CD and it worked perfectly. I then, tried to play a DVD, but my network didn't have the software to do that so, I went to [...] and downloaded an application that added on to Windows Media player so that I could play them and it worked perfect after that. I also burned the three (DVD) recovery discs from the recovery disc media creator on my netbook and it worked perfectly as well and I will also say that the speed was pretty good as well. The only downside is that the button to open the drive it seems like I have to use my fingernail to get it precise enough so that it will open and the caseing does seem to be a little flimsy, but nothing that would be a deal breaker!!! I didn't even feel like these drawbacks constituted taking off a star. Overall, this was a great buy and I love Amazan! If something goes wrong with this, I will definately update being that I have only had it a day, but so far it is just what I wanted!

(12/7/2012)I am writing in response to one of the "most helpful customer reviews", which complained bitterly about this DVD drive. I was looking for an extra drive to watch two discs on my computer at the same time, so that I don't have to take the discs in and out all the time. The negative review sounded so bad that it made me laugh, so I ordered this thing to see if it's as bad as they say. First, the DVD drive I received didn't come with any installation CD. I just plugged it in and Windows 7 automatically installed it. I played DVDs in it and plays nicely. Everything seems fine to me. One thing that the other reviewer complained about is true: the cords are really short, one of them being only half as long as the other and not long enough to reach the USB port on my desktop while having the drive sitting on top of the desktop next to the internal drive. The short cord (the one for power) is only about a foot long. I happen to have an USB extension cord sitting around, so it's no problem. You would think that the two USB cords should be of equal length. If I didn't happen to have another USB cord, I probably would have returned this thing. If you are using a laptop, this wouldn't be as much of a problem. I recommend this if you don't mind a super short, one foot long cord. Except for that problem, the drive seems to work fine. I'll update this review if it quits on me any time soon. Update 12/11/2012: I was installing an old game on my Vista laptop, and half way through the installation, the computer shows an error and quit. I tried to wipe the disk and it didn't help, so I plugged in this drive (Vista installed it immediately) and used it to install the game, and it worked! This means that this CD drive works better than the drive of my expensive laptop!

I just got this product for my macbook air so I could watch DVD's but it doesn't work at all. Once I plug it in, to both USB drives which is really annoying, it will take the dvd and keep ejecting it until i've closed it about five times, then it finally stays closed. Then the dvd will start and play for about 2-6 seconds before freezing and crashing the dvd player. There is absolutely no support for fixing a problem like this, I really wish there was because I would love to get the stupid thing working. I would not recommend getting this, it may be cheap which is definitely it's biggest appeal but like I said, it doesn't even work.

If you only need a spare CD-RW/DVD player, this is it. It requires to be plugged directly into your laptop, something that is a pain with my mini laptop, as I only have 3 ports. It does not like an external USB plug. While playing music, or an audio book, you do not have the capability of back-tracking. You also can not pause whatever you are playing. The unit freezes up. The only way to continue playing is to unplug it from all USB ports and start over. Not the best external CD unit, but cheap and fast delivery. I have not tried creating my own CDs with it yet, but not sure it will perform very well.