Burn CDs Without Burning Yourself!
Written: Jan 07 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quality, Speed, Ease of Use
Cons: none
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| thetool721's Full Review: HP CD-Writer Plus 9300i Series |
HP CD-Burners have been my choice in burners for a long time. Sometimes they will cost a little more than their generic counterpart, but I think its worth it. In the computer industry, you get what you pay for (most of the time), and CD-Burners are no exception.
Choosing a Model
When I started looking for my burner, I set a few simple guidelines. First, I wanted a reputable burner made by a reputable company. My next factor was burning speed (I wanted no less than 8x write on CD-R media). I wanted an Internal IDE drive (I never did like parallel burners, and USB doesn’t work with Windows NT4). Anything above and beyond these guidelines would suffice for my needs.
I dug through various computer magazines and stumbled upon the HP CD-Writer Plus 9300i. Since it was made by HP, I felt that I had satisfied my first objective. Not only that, but the magazines were recommending this as a very good burner. The burning speed was the highest available at the time at 10 x 4 x 32 (CD-R x CD-RW x CD Read). It was an Internal IDE drive, and fulfilled my final objective.
The 9300i CD-Burner will burn standard 74 minute (650MB) CDs just like any other CD-Burner. It will also burn extended 80 minute (700MB) CDs, however HP does not recommend using them. They feel that the integrity of the CD is not the same when burning beyond the 74 minute barrier.
The burner also comes with an assortment of software titles. Most users will spend their time using Adaptec Easy CD Creator, and DirectCD. These allow you to burn CD-R and CD-RW media with your 9300i Series burner. They also include HP Simple Backup, which allows you to create backups (and even crash recovery CDs) for your PC. HP also includes a few diagnostics utilities.
The burner also includes a Neato CD Labeler. This allows you to print custom labels for your CDs and apply them to the CD perfect any time. It works fairly decent, and the price (free) is perfect!
Installation
My workstation has removable Hard Drives. I have various drives for my workstation so that I can work with and test various operating systems. Because of this, I have installed my burner on various operating systems. I have had great success with pretty much every Microsoft Windows-based operating system Unfortunately, I haven’t worked enough with Linux to even start burning there, so I can't really call that one.
I’ve worked the 9300i with the following Operating Systems successfully:
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98SE
Microsoft Windows NT4 Workstation
Microsoft Windows NT4 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows ME
Installation is fairly simple, just like any other IDE device. Set the jumpers appropriately on the drive (if you are sharing an IDE with another device, you may need to adjust the jumpers on that device as well). Once the jumpers are set, mount the drive into your computer case using a visible 5.25” bay.
Connect your IDE cable as instructed (If your computer’s IDE cable only has 1 tap on it, replace that cable with the one provided with the burner). The IDE cable should be keyed and should only fit 1 way (or line up pin 1 on the motherboard and IDE devices with the red, or marked, wire on the cable). If your sound card has room for another CD-ROM, connect the provided audio cable between the sound card and burner (this is not required).
When you boot up the first time, all of the above Operating Systems inserted a new CD-ROM in my list of drives available. At this time, it will function as a CD-ROM with no problem. You must install the provided software in order to take advantage of the CD-R and CD-RW capabilities of the drive.
Installing your burner software is just as simple as any other program. Follow the on screen prompts and you should be ready to go. With Easy CD Creator you can build your own custom CDs (Music and Data). DirectCD allows you to read and write to CD-RW media directly.
Performance
Overall I am very pleased with the performance of my 9300i burner. I feel I have definitely gotten my money’s worth on this one. I have had no problems with the burner itself as of yet (knock on wood).
I have burnt over 200 CDs on the burner and it’s still running strong. I mostly use Memorex as my CD-R media. I don’t spend very much time burning CD-RW media, however I do have a stack of Memorex Platinum in case I need them. A few weeks ago I did pick up a spindle of cheapo 80 Minute (700MB) CD-Rs.
Of the 200+ CD-Rs I have burned, I have only had 3 bad burns. One of these can be attributed to me (of course) and the other 2 were due to the cheapo 80 Minute CDs I just mentioned (Watch the cheapo CDs, they really DO make a difference). Other than that, the performance of the burner has been flawless.
When it comes to CD Writers, I think HP stands for quality. My first was an HP Sure-Store 7200i (2 x 2 x 4 speed). It was slow, but I never had any problems with it. As a matter of fact I sold it to a relative when it was 3 years old, and it’s still burning CDs no problem! My CD-Writer Plus 9300i has been performing solid ever since the day I bought it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
thetool721
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Member: Joseph Hobbs
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
An IT junkie...
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