Creative Labs MK4214 CD-RW Blaster 8432

by Creative Labs

Product Details

Product Manual [1.70mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004RG6N
• Item model number: MK4214
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Creative Labs' CD-RW Blaster 8432 internal IDE CD-RW drive enables you to record and copy data directly to discs. Moving your data to a CD is just a click away with Creative Labs' CD-RW Blaster 8432. Copy a complete CD or select only the files you want to record, and CD-RW Blaster does the rest--and in less than nine minutes. You can drag and drop files right onto the CD icon, just like copying a file to a floppy or hard disk. For more flexibility, use a CD-RW rewritable disc so you can add and delete files as needed.

Blank CDs can store up to 650 MB of data, the same amount as 450 floppies or 6.5 100 MB Zip disks, making CDs a cost-effective way to back-up precious data. CD-RW Blaster provides two ways to save your information--routine backups to rewritable CD-RW media or permanent archives to a CD-R disc. In addition, high-quality CDs are more economical than other media, and their durability surpasses their magnetic media counterparts.

Now instead of changing CDs to listen to your favorite tracks, you can create one CD with all your favorite music. Compile music and audio tracks stored as MIDI and WAV files, or download the latest independent MP3 songs from the Internet and store them on a CD to free up valuable hard disk space. CD-RW Blaster delivers the low-cost solution by using inexpensive CD-R and CD-RW discs that can be read by standard CD-ROM drives.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Far So Good...No complaints, September 14, 2000

By 

Zarene Ashburn - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Labs MK4214 CD-RW Blaster 8432 (Personal Computers)

I bought Creative's CD-RW drive mainly because it's cheaper than HP and other top manufacturers, plus you have that Creative brand name. With all the I've heard of unreliable CD-RW drives and unsuccessful burning attempts that result in your CDRs becoming coasters, I was sure that I would face the same problems. However, in the past 3 months, I've successfully burned 18 CDRs and had only one unsuccessful burn. My computer is a Pentium 3 with 500 plus Megahertz, 128MB and yada yada... basically it's a FAST multimedia PC (running on Win 98) and that fact perhaps may have helped in the performance of this CD-RW drive. Tip: Upgrade your slow computer to a fast one because the success of a burn depends on the writing speed of your CD-RW drive which in turn depends on the speed of your PC.

Installing is a breeze; once you pop the drive into your CPU, just turn it on and the system automatically recognises the new drive, you don't need any drivers. After that, install the Nero Burning ROM software that comes with the package. Nero is simple to use and straightforward that it took only ten minutes for me to figure out the burning process. The interface comprises of windows that shows all your directories/folders/files and all you need to do is to click and drag the files (that you want to burn) into the CD-RW drive window, then press the burn button in the toolbar. Of course you must insert the CD-R/RW in the drive first; a cool thing I found was that I could just push the loading tray in by hand to close the drive, no need to push the "in" button. The CD-RW software, Prassi abCD is also good; easy to install and use. One rule I stick by: don't run other programs while burning

There are certain things you can do to help maintain the life of your CD-RW drive. First, don't overwork the drive by burning CDRs continuously one after another. I never burn more than 3 CDRs in one day. Secondly, although this CD-RW drive works as a CD-ROM as well, it would be better to have separate drives; CD-ROM purely for reading and CD-RW drive purely for burning/writing. Once I put into my CD-RW drive, a music CD which has specks of dust on the reading surface and I immediately regretted it. Luckily the dust did not get into the drive and interfere with the burning.

Some of the negative reviews posted here may be unwarranted because often it's NOT the product but THE WAY people use that product that determines its success. With Creative's excellent 8432 CD-RW drive, I've had one successful burn after another, so I heartily recommend it especially for those with a fast computer.

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Cd Burner, works flawlessly., April 22, 2000

By 

Nathan C (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Labs MK4214 CD-RW Blaster 8432 (Personal Computers)

What can I say, it's fast AND reliable. I've never had a failed burn out of 50 or so. Comes with awesome software by a company named AHEAD, called "Nero Burning ROM." It works great. Want to make an audio cd out of mp3s? Just drag then from your hard drive over to the cd and that's it! Copy a CD? Just hit copy and you'll have an identical copy. It works great, not a single problem installing.

Buy this over a Hewlett Packard. HP has horrible customer service. There is not a single toll free tech support line. This burner is awesome, I highly recommend it.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Creative has Failed me, July 30, 2000

By 

+deV "Musak Freak" (Hellifornia, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Labs MK4214 CD-RW Blaster 8432 (Personal Computers)

This product seemed like a godsend at first. It was 20 dollars cheaper then the HP burner and although I heard great things about the HP burner I got the Creative one. What a pile. The nero program was either a pile or the burner itself. And the customer support? Damn I was on hold for 20 minutes. I eventually hung up. Don't get me wrong, it burned software fine. But it also made 7 coasters when it came to making audio cd's. I tried mp3 to audio cd, cd to cd, and wave to audio cd. One of them came out fine. The rest all got a cdb error. It would get to the first or second track and then come back with a buffer error or a cdb error. I went to Neros troubleshooting page and read up on it. This error is a bad one. It could be caused by a million things. And as a consumer I don't have the time to do hours of troubleshooting on a product.

This may be a simple fix but after being put on hold forever and after it ruined 9 cdr's I gave up. I packed it in it's box and sent it on it's way. Everyone says HP is the best and I'm going to try and see.