Hewlett Packard C4456A CD-Writer Plus 9210e

The Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer Plus 9210e drive is an external CD-Rewritable SCSI drive with 8x/4x/32x performance. You can use the drive to create, share, and store data, photos, music and more on high capacity CDs. Record up to 650 MB of data (about 1.2 GB compressed) or up to 74 minutes of audio to CD. You can also keep your files safe, accessible, and transferable. The SCSI connect technology ensures that the drive will not be outdated in the near future. You can also use the drive to backup and secure your system. The drive, using HP Disaster Recovery Software, is a quick and simple way to restore your entire computer system.

If you're looking for a fast CD-rewritable drive with an excellent software bundle, Hewlett-Packard offers its CD-Writer Plus 9210e. This 8x/4x/32x drive may be a bit pricier than similar drives, but if you need a portable SCSI drive you can't do much better.

Since the drive uses a SCSI interface, you'll need a SCSI controller card and cable, which unfortunately are not included with this package. If you don't have a SCSI system and don't have any desire to transport the drive, you might be better off with a less expensive internal EIDE model. But if you're SCSI ready and want to hot-swap the drive between systems, it's an excellent option.

With a SCSI card preinstalled, the drive hookup was simple: we ran the installation program, set the drive to the SCSI number recommended, plugged it in, and rebooted our computer. SCSI is the fastest way to handle an external drive (and often internal as well), and we were pleased at how fast this drive wrote data. We filled a 650 MB CD in about 10 minutes on a Celeron 300 MHz system.

The CD-Writer Plus also features a nice software bundle. In addition to Adaptec's standard write software, Direct CD and Easy CD Creator, the drive ships with HP Disaster Recovery (for restoring your system after a crash) as well as Neato's CD Labeler to create your own CD labels.

Another nice feature of a SCSI drive is its easy portability. Just unplug the cable and carry this drive to wherever you need it. It's not particularly compact (the drive alone weighs almost five pounds), but it's much easier than swapping out an internal drive.

A SCSI drive isn't the easiest to configure, and we would have liked to see more installation and troubleshooting information than Hewlett-Packard offered in the thin manual and short setup guide. But if you know your way around SCSI peripherals, the CD-Writer Plus won't be a problem--and you'll enjoy its speed and versatility. --J. Curtis

Pros:

Fast and portable
Easily accessible

Cons:

Requires SCSI card and cable
Expensive

1 Bought it love it
Although i have had mine for only 6 months, i still have had no problems. i get a flawless 8x write every time. i am useing a adaptec 2930 scsi card. I highly recomend them. but as with any scsi device make sure you get a reliable scsi card. and remember the warrinty is one year(if you look at the owners manual). also it is best ot plug them straight into the wall not a surge protector or battery backup

2 Pure crap
brought product because it was external stop working for no reason after the 90day warranty expired it worked great for 90 days i think it was programmed to do so to much a coincidence. burned cds slowly and works best with tdk recordables other brands it spits back out the drive is not repairable support from hp is much to be desired.