ASUS SDRW-08D2S-U LITE external 8X DVD writer, Mac Compatible, M-DISC support, Disc Encryption, Unlimited Webstorage(12 months), NERO Backitup, E-Green, E-Media

I bought this "ASUS SDRW-08U7M-U Ultraslim" as my current 15 year old External DVD Drive has started to randomly refuse blank discs it has always accepted. At first glance it looks nice, its light, looks a bit flimsy, but it's not like I'm going to be tossing it around the place. The discs need to be pressed onto a spindle until they click securely into place (much like a PS1 Console), these are actually better as there's no chance of scratching or damaging a CD. The only downside to this DVD Drive is the included Y Cable, it is only 18 inches in length, perfectly fine if you are using a Laptop. But I am using a desktop PC and I have to use books to prop it up to reach my USB ports. There are 2 USB Connectors, the 2nd provides additional power if needed (my PC only needed me to use the one, some low power laptops may need it, so make sure you have 2 USB ports side by side or within 4 inches of one another). I installed Power2Go 8 from the bundled Software disc as I had previously used a Trial and liked its functionality, its a quick no fuss burning Software but has advanced options if needed. Also I liked the inclusion of 2 Verbatim DVDR ''M-Discs'', will be the only time that I will use these as the DVDR M-Discs are hard to purchase and have little use to me, standard blank DVDs are fine. I have a collection of family photos going back to the 1920's so will use them for that as there supposed to last a lifetime. I ripped a CD and extraction speed was slower than my older drive, but its what it is, but track quality was 100% and that's the main thing. Burning DVDs was quick though and it accepted all the discs, disc verification afterwards gave a 100% pass. My copying and burning was silent enough, all depends on surface you have it on.

I am really impressed / pleased with this drive. It seems to be increasingly difficult to find a recognisable brand-name drive for under around £35. My laptop does actually have a CD/DVD drive, but it is playing up and does not recognise some music CDs (I rip my CDs to my laptop, so I have music with me when working away from home). It is quite likely that my next laptop will not have an optical drive at all - so I decided to get an external drive. This drive comes with a software disc (DVD format), although I have not bothered to use it. I simply connected the drive to my laptop, confirmed that windows 7 recognised it, inserted my CD and I was away. I also tested it with a DVD movie - no problem at all. As with many external drives, optical drives like this and hard-drives, this device takes its power from the USB socket of the computer to which it is connected. Also, in common with many similar peripherals, there is no external power-supply for this drive. The supplied USB cable is a "Y-cable", such that if your Asus drive cannot receive enough power from a single USB socket, then the second USB plug must be connected. The Y-Cable lead to the extra-power USB plug is quite short, so the two USB sockets would need to be close together (and not on opposite sides of the laptop - or you will need an extension USB cable). I needed to plug in both plugs to play a DVD movie - it was recognised by my computer, and the DVD name was recognised with only one plug connected, but it would not play the DVD (it would read the contents of the software DVD supplied with only one plug connected) The supplied DVD with the drive seems to contain some sort of back-up software, and an ASUS-Green "power-saving" software - I did install that but after one look at it I uninstalled it. The quick operating instructions do not cover what is included on the CD, and I do not need it for my purposes. I also bought a case in which to store or carry this drive - as the drive itself is quite lightweight and I think could be easily damaged if not looked after. I bought this: RLSOCO Hard Protective Carrying Case for USB CD DVD HDD Blu-Ray Burner, Ultra Portable External Hard Drive Case . The case fits well in terms of length and width/depth - perhaps slightly too high, but a bit of foam on top of the drive and it is held snugly. Very happy with the purchase of this drive, great value for the price. Update: 23 Jan 2018: been using this drive quite a bit for several weeks. Has not failed to be recognised once by my laptop, and has not failed to read even a single CD (I only plug it in to the laptop when I need to use it).

I loaded the software onto my note book using the DVD drive itself. No problems for my notebook to recognise the DVD drive when pluged in. The software would not do anything, it just repeatedly took me to the website for an upgrade which required a payment. So ignored the software and copied some files by drag and drop onto a recordable DVD disc which worked quickly without any problems. During about 20 minutes while the files were being transfered i recieved 10 screen pop-ups requesting completion of my upgrade purchases. A few hours later I tuned the notebook back on and got more pop-ups about my upgrade! With the help of my internet security I completely uninstalled the software and all the bits of junk it left behind. No more pop-ups! So the DVD drive is working fine, it burns and reads without any problems. I have backed up 4.5 gigabites of family photo's to 1 burnable DVD and veiwed them on a different laptop without any problems.

I had to make a bunch of videos very quickly in december for a christmas play. I didn't have long, so I needed to use a no nonsense editor and a no-nonsense writer. For the editor, I used kdenlive. It's pretty much the standard editor for doing videos on Linux these days. It's basic, but functional. However, it does produce very good quality MP4s. To burn the DVDs I used DeVeDeNG to make the DVD, and (I think xfburn) to write the disks. The moment I plugged in the drive, it started spinning, and then just added itself to the list of drives. No drivers needed. then, when I loaded up xfburn, it saw the drive, knew exactly what it was, its speeds etc, everything. so, I popped in a blank, and hit "write". i'd bought a pack of 10, because I remember the failures from years ago when I last had to write DVDs and CDs... But the first DVD popped out absolutely perfectly. So, I did the second movie, and sure enough, it popped out a few minutes later completely perfect. Took it to my Sony DVD player downstairs, and it booted and played first time. Took it back to the duplicators, and they were able to read and duplicate my master copy with zero issues. I've used it to back up a few more things, like photos, since then. It's worked perfectly every time. A very reliable, quite quiet, drive. Very pleased.

I have been using it extensively with an old 2014 MacBook Pro and honestly I have pretty much nothing to complain about. Super straight forward, no install of any kind required (on MacOS anyway) though it comes with a CD to setup the “ASUS DVD Suite” which seems to have a few programs you can install if you so wish, along with two 4.7GB storage discs (if you’re into that sort of storage still) and a Micro USB to a double USB type A cable, one of which can be used for both power and signal while the other is just for power. If that seems confusing don’t worry, chances are that you will only really use the one for signal and power anyway. Oh and lastly it also seems to come with a code that appears to offer you 6 months to some ASUS Web Storage upon activation, which I didn’t know was even a thing... but HEY, can’t complain about more perks right?! As for the DVD drive itself it’s super light, super thin, and has a nice textured top which prevents any fingerprint smudges. It’s a very basic and minimalistic design which I always like. Good job Asus. Even in 2020 (baring in mind this drive came out several years ago already), it is still a really solid choice for anyone wanting a simple DVD drive for their computer. Big thumbs up. Hope this helps! =)

I was advised by AI that I should avoid the cheaper external optical drives and to go with a trusted brand like ASUS. This seems to be the newest of the ASUS models. I've only used it to rip one CD so far (on my Rpi5 running Ubuntu) - it's working brilliantly and it looks great. Very happy with my purchase!

This is a really good bit of kit for archivists who need to store files from many different computers. Especially as most don't have CD/DVD drives any more. However... whilst for playing it only needs one USB connector for burning DVD's and especially M-Disc DVDs it needs power from TWO USB ports. Make sure you have two, that can supply power simultaneously, on the computers you want to use this with. It should be OK on most desktops and medium high end laptios.

Pretty decent burner, but the flimsy cable failed after a few months of very careful use. Not impressed.