Pawtec External USB 3.0 Aluminum 8X DVD-RW Writer Optical Drive with Lightscribe (Red)

I love this optical drive. It is so thin and light. The cord is short though. I purchased this because it wrote Lite Scribe CDs and can make labels directly on the CD. I was surprised to find out that the software to use this feature is not included. I had to scope the internet and find a download for the Lite Scribe software. Once I got it, it did its job. The software helps you design the label and when finished you turn over your cd (top side down) in the tray and hit print. It literally burns the design onto the top of the CD (In black and gray only) I think that is is old technology but I have yet to find anything that replaces it except owning a printer that will print on printable CD's (Not paper labels, they guy up your drive). I'm having fun with it and don't have to write on the cd with a magic marker anymore. Fun and useful product. And as a bonus, it writes using USB3. Fast. Oh and you will have to order CD/DVDs that are Lite Scribe compatible. You can't use just any CD/DVD to use this feature.

It is very vice to look at and it made a great paper weight. It did not, however, work at all. I even had the Mac Technician look at.I wanted to love it and was very excited to get it; however, it worked once with my iMac Retina 5K late 2014 model, only once. Then it would not recognize any disk I inserted thereafter. Rebooted the Mac, unplugged and plugged this USB devise, tried it on a Windows PC, tried it on a laptop. None of the devises I tested it on would register that I plugged anything in the USB port. After confirmation from a tech that it was not User Error I requested a refund. Pawtec was hassle free.Thank you Pawtec for making my purchase and my unfortunate return as easy as possible.I would give PAwtec 5-Stars for being hassle free.

Worked great for the first four CDs then started crashing every time. Just had 6 failures in a row. Will be returning it.

The pawtec works just fine, It is like a drive you would find on a laptop so it only pops open about an inch and then you have to pull it out.It does an excellent job on the lightscribe side of things. It reads and plays DVD's very well. You need a flat surface to set it on because movement tends to turn it on and open up. All things considered, it is well worth the money.

Just got it, its installed, and am currently burning some light scribe CD's.So here is my 2 cents having just got it.A) Its nothing more than a cd drive from a laptop in an external shell. It doesn't eject like a desktop cd drive, it just pops open like the cd drives on your laptop (if your laptop still has a cd drive) All things considered...its not that big of a deal. Would have preferred the shell of the drive to be a bit bulkier, but I can work with this drive no problem.B) It comes with an odd USB to cd drive cable. Its proprietary or some odd connector I've never seen before. At any rate, you have to use the supplied cable to connect it to your computer. Its also a very short cable, so if you plan on having this on your desk as opposed to sitting directly on top of your tower, you will need to buy a USB extension cable. The power cable (USB to AC) is also very short. So make sure you purchase a 2 pack of USB extension cables if you plan on remote installing.C) Lightscribe burn quality: So far, its burning slightly cleaner and crisper than my old drive. My old Ativa was well, older. So this doesn't surprise me, but was a welcome upgrade. I burn a lot of CD's for customer who require physical copies for their files and prefer to file CD's instead of jump drives. So being able to increase my quality is great.D) You download the lightscribe software, if you don't already have it, from their website. Its free, easy to install, and set up was quick. The drive itself was almost instantly recognized by my computer...so set up all in all was a breeze.Overall, I am happy with the purchase. For the price, I don't think you could do better. I will update if there is anything to update such as fails, bugs etc etc

Love it! Mine in my computer finally gave out. I didn't want to have to hire someone to put another one in so asked questions about it on here and decided it was liked and worked great so bought it. Works great! Just got it 3 hours ago. Took me 1 minute to set it up and figure out how to make it my default printer. I have Cyberlink Label Print which I love and made sure it was my default printer for Lightscribe. Have made 2 labels on my DVD's already works even faster them my HP printer in my computer. Takes about 18 minutes each..Thanks everyone for helping me with my question!!

Stopped working after 2 dvds couldn't even get to testing lightscribe function. I'm on windows 10 and i know the OS itself is a HUGE PITA. Nice job microsoft. nonetheless - could not get this to hook up and function properly - burned two good DVDs (all the others resulted in failures or errors) over the course of 3 hours. If you have windows 10 and considering this, buyer beware. It is plug and play and had no issues starting up but after 3 hours of just needing to burn a few dvd's i give up.

Great little drive. I am very pleased to have been able to find a drive that will burn Lightscribe disks, as they are few and far between. I've burned several DVDs, both data side and label side, since receiving it and it works just great. Love the red color.