Customer Reviews

BUSlink UII-RW52E 52x24x52 External USB 2.0 CD-RW Drive

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I am a college computer class instructor. And in my classes I teach how to burn CD'c from start to finish. I needed an external CD burner and this one is a great one. In my classroom the computer's OS is Windows 2000, so no drivers were needed, but you will need drivers for Windows 95/98 all of which comes with the drive. Nero and a blank CD-r came with the drive. The drive is big, but light. The drive is also a standard size 5 1/4 drive that has been encased. The manual is no help at all and when I connected the drive a red light came on to indicate power, but also the light is there to indicate the speed of the connection that the drive will write. Amber for full speed and yellow or green for half speed. I can not remember which. There is a green light that is on when the drive is writing to the disc and I found this to be confusing, because all other drives that I own the light is red when writing and green when not writing. This drive also supports Mount Reineer, but it is not stated in the manual and there is no instructions on how to use it. Microsoft will build support for Mount Reineer in it's next OS upgrade. Buslink should put a bit more effort into ther manuals. Other than that the drive works great.

I have not bought a computer product as bad as this one since the early days of computing. After installation of the Nero software, my computer crashed, totally and completely. It took 3 hours of restoring files and deleting the offending files to enable Windows to boot up. We then installed the basic program only-none of the extras-and it seemed to work. It burned one CD and since then crashes repeatedly.

Avoid this product-for your own good.

I bought a Buslink cd rw drive and the company did not honor the rebate. The better business bureau lists Buslink as an UNSATISFACTORY business for among other things, not honoring rebates.

Wow... Had I read these reviews prior to purchasing this external cd r/w drive, I probably would have avoided it. But I personally haven't had any problems with the one I bought two months ago. I found the installation to be very easy, and was burning CDs from my laptop within five minutes. Included with my drive was a USB cable, Nero SmartStart 6.0, and the CD R/W driver. I have XP on my laptop, so I didn't have to install the driver. I just plugged in the USB to the R/W driver, hooked it into my laptop, and the system recognized it. That's all it took. Within a few minutes, I was burning data to a CD-R.

The Pros -- Fast (up to 52X), quick and easy installation, and... well, it works.
The Cons -- Rather bulky and somewhat noisy.

I can overlook the cons I mentioned above, as this external burner is exactly what I need -- a fairly inexpensive burner that was easy to set up and does the job quickly. That's all I can ask for. I hope I don't run into the problems these other reviewers have had... so far, so good.

What a disappointment! While it worked, it sometimes was difficult to get the disc holder to eject and now, after a year's time, it just up and died with no warning. It sat safely on a shelf next to my computer- was not moved around- and one day when it wouldn't turn on I picked it up to check the cord connections and could hear the sound of parts rolling around on the inside. Yikes! Wish I'd gone with a better brand from the start.

Contrary to the review by sc1234 from NY, the burner would not work with my FIRST EDITION WIN98 OS. No drivers are included to make that happen. The product, though, is handsome, well packaged, easy as pie to set up. When it wouldn't work with my system I fired off emails to BUSlink's support site. They responded in a timely fashion and seemed to have a genuine desire to help. The tech I dealt with said that it simply cannot be used with pre WIN98 SECOND EDITION (SE). Five stars for customer support.

I received one at christmas time and it broke. Luckily, the store warranty is extended over the holidays and I was able to get it replaced. After a few weeks, the new one broke down in the same way! And too late for the store warranty, and the company doesn't give any kind of warranty. I would NEVER buy this product or ANY product from buslink again.

This review applies to the Buslink 2.0 CD-RW which is no longer available, so I can't write a review for it. the UII appears to be a newer version. You can take this review with a grain of salt for that reason, but I know I will never buy a Buslink product again.

I bought this one for about $90 at Compusa. I got it up and running pretty easily, but it stopped recognizing media when inserted after a couple of days. I returned it to Buslink after a couple of months (in the meantime, life being busy, I had simply continued to use my zip drive for back up and just did without burning cds for other reasons.) They supposedly fixed it, but I was still extremely busy when i got it back and didn't try to hook it up for about 4 months. When I finally did, the media door wouldn't open. Yes, I admit it, in a fit of pique, I threw it down, had the satisfaction of ripping the housing off it, and trashed it.

If I had all the time in the world, I suppose I could have sent it back AGAIN. Forget it. I am in the market for a new one, and this time I will look for reviews.

Okay, read these reviews, because they tell the story.

This drive feels cheap, as if it's not solidly built. It worked great for me for about a month(!), then it was coaster after coaster. There are a lot of mediocre disc writers out there and they're all better than this one.

After only five months, it just up and quit one day. The disk indicator light that flashes when my system is powered up does nothing now and the tray no longer opens (but the power light is on). It has not moved from the location it was originally placed, so I've no clue what the cause of death is. I now question the quality of BUSlink products and will not consider them again when purchasing in the future.