I started my CD-RW experience with a Smart and Friendly CD-RW 226 SCSI. SCSI was new to me as were CD-RW's. It took a bit of trouble shooting with the SCSI card (Adaptec 2910)to get my computer to recognize it. Once the SCSI card was installed correctly, I had absolutely no problem. But that's the thing..you have to get that SCSI card in right, meaning the right drivers. It's easy to stick the wrong ones in there as so many drivers come with the 2910. You have to check your system devices to make sure there are no conflicts.

I now use a Smart and Friendly CD-RW Turbowriter IDE which was much easier to install. I have both drives in my computer and they both work equally well though the Turbowriter is 6x and much faster than the 2x 226. I have had no problems at all copying files onto the cds, but don't plan on copying CD to CD on any drive without occasionally getting skips. If you're copying audio cds, you're always better off transferring the music to hard drive first and then copying off of that. I don't care how much you pay for a drive if you are copying cd to cd you will eventually get an annoying skip.

You must have absolutely nothing running in the background when copying cd to cd, the cd you're copying from must be in good condition, and before copying, defrag to prevent buffer problems. Keep in mind, CD-RW's in general are such a new technology that as far as I'm concerned none of them are perfect. For the money, go with the Smart and Friendly, but learn about CD-RW's in general first.



Recommended: Yes