Hewlett Packard C4464A CD-Writer Plus 8250i

by HP

Product Details

Product Manual [61kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001ZUJU
• Item model number: C4464A
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer drives have consistently been stable workhorses, and the CD-Writer Plus 8250i is no exception. Out of the gate, this thoroughbred proves its worth by delivering on advertised speeds and producing readable CDs in every CD-ROM drive we tested--even those burned at full speed. In this age of 8x CD-R drives, it's comforting to know that 4x drives such as the 8250i are not cheap but simply inexpensive and built to handle the rigors of extended service.

We found the CD-Writer Plus 8250i to be an excellent addition to a faster CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. While the 24x read speed is certainly adequate for most applications, its slow random-access speed of 156 milliseconds is readily apparent when compared to that of typical 40x to 50x CD-ROM drives with speeds of 80 to 90 milliseconds. As such, we put the 8250i through the paces by making it a slave of a DVD-ROM drive on the secondary IDE bus. This is the toughest location for any ATAPI burner to be because if burns are likely to fail, they'll fail from here. True to form, the 8250i performed admirably in all tests without producing a single badly burned CD (typically called "coasters").

If you're a beginner at installing devices like these, we recommend you get some help. The 8250i's documentation is poorly written and lacking in visuals. Otherwise, hardware installation is a breeze. Software comes on one CD-ROM and is easily installed via a single executable file.

The CD-Writer Plus is powered by Adaptec-based software; it uses Easy CD Creator 3.5 for creating music and data discs and DirectCD 2.5d for writing to rewritable CD-RW media. If you're new to the world of burning discs, don't worry--HP offers a simple menu-driven interface that ties all the components together quite nicely.

When you click on the Create a CD icon, you have four simple choices: make a music CD, copy an existing CD, make a data CD, or make a CD that is compatible with most other CD-ROM drives. We figured this last option would configure Easy CD Creator to burn discs at only 1x speed to ensure full compatibility with older drives. Instead, it acted like the make-a-data-CD feature.

We used CD Tach from TestaCD Labs to perform all the read benchmarks on the drive. All the sequential read speeds for both CD-ROM and CD-RW media were well within HP's advertised range. Burning discs at the full 4x speed took approximately 23 minutes from start to finish (including the two- to three-minute closing of the disc session), while duping a full CD-ROM took 18 minutes. The software also directly supports the copying of music CDs and the creation of music CDs from digital WAV files. Unfortunately, the included version of Adaptec Easy CD Creator (3.5c) doesn't support the burning of MP3 digital music directly to CD music. This problem only affects older CD-RW drives, however.

Once you format a disc, using Adaptec's DirectCD software, you can write the disc to use DirectCD's packet writing technology. This means you can drag and drop files from the desktop or the Explorer directly onto the drive as if it were a large floppy drive. After you remove the disc, you can read CD-RW media in any multiread-compatible CD-ROM and/or DVD-ROM drive.

Burning data directly to the 8250i using DirectCD takes around 54 minutes. But as there's a certain amount of overhead associated with packet writing, the total amount of data the HP SureWriter Plus can write to a single piece of CD-RW media is approximately 513 MB. (Read our FAQ for more info about packet writing and random erase.) After you burn data to CD-RW media, you can delete it, just as you would delete data off a hard drive to free up more space. Generally, writing small amounts of data, such as documents, is instantaneous, while larger 13 MB files take well over a minute. Deleting files is much faster though--an included CD-RW Erase utility destroys all formatting on a CD-RW disc.

We found the HP CD-Writer Plus 8250i to be an excellent drive and a great value in its price range. If you want a burner that gets the work done, without any bells and whistles, we recommend you give the HP 8250i a try--you won't be sorry.

Pros:

• Never produced a buffer-underrun (bad burn)
• Performed to advertised specifications
• Software install was simple and well documented

Cons:

• Poor documentation

Amazon.com Product Description

Hewlett-Packard's top-of-the-line multimedia, multipurpose CD-RW (rewritable) drive gives you the power to be productive, with fast performance to give you fast results. It's easy to write data, photo, audio, and video files to a CD. With one-step drag-n-drop, your files can be stored on a CD in seconds, and you can easily make backup copies of any CD. HP Simple Trax can automatically back up and index your files to a CD so you can find them fast--even if you can't remember the file name. HP Simple Trax will let you know which CD your file is on. HP Disaster Recovery lets you protect your hard drive's data files, custom software settings, and operating system. Use the full disaster recovery capability and be back up and running in minutes instead of days. Create original CD labels and jewel cases using the Neato Software and CD Labeler. You'll never have to wonder what's on that CD again.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I would avoid this model, March 22, 2000

By 

ClipperQB (Northeast USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hewlett Packard C4464A CD-Writer Plus 8250i (Personal Computers)

This was first CD-RW drive, I had read favorable reviews of the 8200 and 9100 and figured the 8250i would be on par. The contents of package were slim to say the least. The "manual" was a couple of black and white sheets that loooked like a quick Xerox, there was no audio cable, no screws to mount the drive and one CD-R (no CD-RW was included.) Installation was easy and the drive was ready to go in minutes. I tried copying an Audio CD at 4x. The software reported the disc creation was successful. The result though was terrible, skips and jumps - totally useless. I tried another one at 2x and worked fine. I then tried copying a couple program disks, both ended up no good. Also, one time after inserting one of the copied data disks in the 8250i, the drives light blinked non-stop and the computer froze up. I've since discovered that the other HP drives in these 8000 and 9000 series are made by Sony, but the 8250i is made by Philips. I exchanged the 8250i for the 9110i which records at up to 8x. The packaging looked professional, there was included audio cable, screws, 2 sample disks, more software and a label maker. I just completed copying an audio CD at 4x and results were perfect.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to install, easy to use, December 29, 1999

By 

Jeremy York "-beanish-" (Bothell, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hewlett Packard C4464A CD-Writer Plus 8250i (Personal Computers)

This drive took me about 10 minutes to install, including the time spent shutting down, rebooting, and so on. It was a breeze. Their software looks at your system first and gives dummy-proof instructions on how to set the jumper, how to hook up the IDE cables, etc.

The software is good, not incredible, but it works fine. Hardware is fast, quiet and reliable.

My only complaint was that there was not a cable included to hook the drive directly to my sound card, but that was a minor inconvenience (and since I already have another CD drive wired that way, I might not have been able to use it anyway). The instructions implied that the cord should have been provided.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is so easy!, January 8, 2000

By 

Joe (Canton, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hewlett Packard C4464A CD-Writer Plus 8250i (Personal Computers)

The drive was easy to install and run. This drive was one of the easiest drives to install that I have ever seen. I have been working on computers for about 1 year and over that time the drive that I sugested my coustomers bought was a HP. This is because I found out that Hp takes the time to make there products fool-proof even if the person putting them in has never done it before. Also before I started putting in HP's a RW drive would take about one to two hours to install but since I now do HP's it takes ten to twenty min. This is the best product that HP could have made. This cuts my time to about a fourth what it use to. Thanx HP. I couldn't have done it with out you.