Customer Reviews

Hewlett Packard 9100i 8x4x32 Internal IDE CDRW Drive

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been in computing for almost 20 years now, and never has a product impressed me all round as this one has. Installation of the unit and the drivers is a breeze - the manual is reasonably decent too.

The bundled software is the real bonus though: For example, DirectCD allows you to use a CD-RW as a floppy disk - just drag and drop files onto and off the disk which is "mounted" just like another drive. The Multimedia Organiser is a good product too - it can be used to catalogue and keep track of all your (for example) image files on a CD-R.

What is also nice, is that each time you insert blank media, be it a CD-R or CD-RW, a menu pops up with a sort of "Idiot's Guide To Writing A CD" type of thing. It's a very simple and easy way to create the type of CD that you want.

Other than that, there's a whole host of additional functionality and goodies - such as the free Neato CD labelling kit together with printing templates.

For important storage I only use HP branded CDs, and have never had a problem. As for other brands, the cheaper discs can sometimes fail, but this is caused by faulty CD production and not by the HP CD writer.

Saving the best for last, the speed is fantastic. At 8X a full CD-R takes well under 10 minutes from start to finish. Writing to a CD-RW is obviously slower at 4X, but it's good enough unless you're backing up your 20 gig harddrive each Friday :-)

In summary, an all round fantastic product at a most competitive price. Go and get one.

I have used a number of HP's products in the past and find that this is yet another really good investment. I love to use it for making my music CDs and now that I have a digital camera and digital camcorder, I will be using it for storage as well.

As to the comments made by another reviewer, you can use music discs you create in your car (I have 5 right now in mine!). The only thing you have to do is burn the disc in one sitting. Any CD-RW drive creates a menu at the beginning of the disc. This is read by your CD-ROM or CD player telling it how many titles/items are on it. If that menu is broken up by writing the data in multiple sessions, it will be unreadable by any player other than a CD-RW drive. So if you plan to make music CDs you can listen to other than at your computer, plan them out and burn in one session, otherwise, you're SOL. :)

As this is my first CD writer, I'm not sure how it compares w/competing products, but this is great value for a very useful computer add-on. Primarily, I use it for backing up my PC, storing digital photos & other documents, passing digital photos to my friends and family, and making my own audio CDs.

In my Win98 system, I did run into slow performances and occassional hangs when writing onto CompUSA 2x CDRW disks. The fault may lie with the 2x disks, because with the 4x CDRW disks (also from CompUSA), I've had no problems and the speed is impressive.

I really love the DirectCD software, which lets me write to the disk from any programs just like a hard drive. The CD Creator program is fine for making audio CDs, but nothing beats being able to simply drag & drop files from Windows Explorer to the CD. This is perfect for storing important but large file sets (such as my digital photos) that are frequently accessed and added to.

I considered getting a tape backup drive last year; I'm glad I waited because this works great as a backup drive--speedy and easy to access. I can't archive GBs of data at a time, but it's just fine for backing up selected files & directories.

This is a really nice CD ROM burner. I use it as a second CD-ROM drive and mainly for CD burning but it can be used like any other CD-ROM drive. I purchased it mainly to create my own music CD's. I was hoping I could use the read write feature to create music CD's and then have the ability to record over it but it doesn't work that way. Only the CD-R discs can be burned for music and the CD-RW discs are data only and they can only be used with other compatible CD-RW drives. Any discs created with a CD-RW will not work on your portable or car CD player. I also use it for transfering large amounts of data from one computer to another with each disc capable of storing 650 MB.

This CD-RW drive is the best by far, it is reasonablypriced. It has its own testing facility so it will tell you if the CD/or files won't be able to copy properly. The software included has a backup facility, Scan Disc, make a cd, and more. It even has a label insert program, where you design what the cover of the cd looks like. In a word the HP9100i Extrodinary! END

I've been in the computing business for over 25 years and I'm telling you, no product is as impressive as the HP 9100i for its affordable price. I was checking out some catalouges the other day and I saw a few external CD writers ranging between 350-800 dollars and even the internal writes were very costly ranging between 300 and 500 dollars. Well for this CD writer it isnt going to cost that much. Just between 170.00 and 199.95. And believe me its worth it.

The software included in this package is incredible. The Adaptec CD Creator allows you to take any type of file, whether it be large or small, (up to 650mb and 74 min. of audio) drag them into a small area, and burn away. Also, the label creator helps me to remember what I put on each CD so I don't get confused.

The HP 9100i is a very good writer. My computer isnt too fast but it still records CD's in under 12 minutes every time. Isn't that incredible? Shipping is excellent. It only takes about 1 wk. to ship and the wait is worth it.

I've had this product for less than a week and I don't know how I did without it. Installation was easy (15 minutes tops), and the thing works like a charm. I'm now backing up the files I always meant to copy to floppy and never did. It's wonderfully easy to use. It also works great for burning audio cd's using MusicMatch. I give this product my highest recommendation.

This product is easy to install and easy to use. I have used it to create CDs of teaching materials for use with Microsoft PowerPoint 2000. It burns 650 Mb CD-R discs in 8 minutes on my system. I did have to optimize my system to burn at 8X but it was worth it! Great job, HP!

Got burned buying the first 2x HP writer back when this was relatively new technology. It made more coasters than CD's. This one, I'm happy to say, makes up for the former.

Yes, it makes CD's and fast too! I don't think people will be able to tell the difference between 10 or 20x. It almost takes longer to start the burning process than the actual burning.

The feature that sets this apart most, however, is their Simple Backup program. As an Easy CD Creator user, I've been increasingly frustrated that they continue to ignore the obvious need to back up a hard drive. HP's program solves that problem quickly and efficiently with their program, it even spans across multiple CD's for you packrats.

I ran into a slight problem originally installing their software (common for Microsoft plug and PRAY users). Popped off a note to tech support and got a response in a week. Not fabulous, but probably as good or better as any other company. Solved the problem.

Only caveat - they include an old 3.0 version of Easy CD Creator. If you have 4.0 you can uninstall theirs and install 4.0 into the same directory and it will work seamlessly with their other programs.

One thing to check out before buying is the new "burn-proof" technology or something similarly named that Sanyo has developed and is starting to appear in Plextor CD writers as of the time of this review. So far the reviews have been really positive and you may want to spend the extra cash for the technology. Otherwise this is the best writer at this price level (I paid twice as much just two months ago - man I hate that!)

this is a great cdrw to have, the only problem with this product is that it lack a user's manual. To a experienced user it might not be a problem but to a novice it might cause some inconvenience. I consider myself a experienced user and I install cdrw and use it w/o any problem, it's just that I prefer to have a manual which can tell me that it is normal for the cdrw reading light to stay on whenever there is a disc inside the cdrw. But if you think you don't need any manual then this product is for you.