At first, I didn't buy this CDRW drive. I bought another internal drive, but when I got home I realized -- just in time -- that my computer did not meet it's requirements. My feeble Pentium 166 just wasn't going to cut it! I took the internal drive back to Future Shop and the salesman and I looked desperately for a writer that would operate with my system. We found one: the Microsolutions Backpack. Unfortunately, it was much more expensive and it was an external drive. Faced with few other choices, I made the purchase.

All this hassle turned out to be a blessing in disguise several months later when my employer decided to graciously loan me a Thinkpad for use at both home and work. Suddenly, an external CDROM drive became invaluable.

Why did I buy it? Well, I had two main uses in mind. I wanted to be able to 1) backup important files lest something horrific happen to my computer 2) burn my own audio CDs from MP3s and put HMV out of business as quickly as possible.

I'm happy to report that my Backpack CDRW has satisfied me on both accounts. Below is a brief summary of what you need to know about the drive if you're considering making the big purchase.

INSTALLATION

Installation is a snap. The Backpack plugs into the parallel port on your computer (usually reserved for printers). If you have a printer, you can chain it through the Backpack and have both connected to your computer at all times.

The Backpack comes with a 3 1/2 " floppy disk and a CDROM. Simply run the setup from the floppy to install the hardware drivers, reboot, and your CD ROM drive is visible in your Windows Explorer. Install the "Easy CD Creator" and "Direct CD" software from the CD and you're in business. I've installed this drive on my old P166, my new Thinkpad, and several friend's machines with little difficulty. I'd estimate the setup time to be about 10 minutes or so, if you follow the short instructions.

SOFTWARE

My Backpack came bundled with "Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4" software for audio CD burning. A brief survey of my computer-techy friends shows that this is perhaps the most common audio CD burning software out there. Thankfully, the learning curve is short and the knowledge required to burn a CD is minimal. Simply launch the application and then drag the MP3 and WAV files that you wish to burn into the window. Put them in the order you wish to burn them, and fire away. In about 30 minutes, give or take, you have a flawless audio CD. Free! Take that, Sony! Down with the record companies! They are monopolies no more! Just kidding. Artists deserve to be paid, too.

WRITING AUDIO CDs

Not all is rosy. I did ruin several blank CDs when trying to get my Backpack to write at 4X speed: it seems hopeless. Even with my Thinkpad's PIII 600 MHz processor, buffer underruns were common. I have always had to resort to burning at 2X speed. This takes longer, but it doesn't bother me much. I can easily keep myself busy for the half hour it takes to burn a full audio CD. Another tip that I learned is to make sure the temp files set in the Adaptec software are on a drive that contains plenty of free space. I also don't recommend using the computer while a CD is burning: anything that takes away processor time or hard drive swap space is risky.

WRITING DATA CDs

For burning non-audio (data) CDs, my Backpack came with the "DirectCD" software. This software allows you to drag and drop data files onto your CD as if it was a hard drive. If the CD in your drive is re-writable (CDRW as opposed to plain CDR) then you can delete files from the CD as well. This is the software that's incredibly useful for data files. It's also useful for storing MP3s that you want to keep but haven't got around to burning to audio CD. Trust me: I just lost about 1000 MP3s to a hard disk crash and I wish that I'd taken the time to copy most of them to CDR. Learn from my mistakes!

JEWEL CASE CREATOR

The Backpack writer also comes with software for creating Jewel cases for the CDs you burn. I've found that application to be rather mediocre; it does the job but you won't be fooling any professional graphic designers. However, it is quick and easy and keeps you from mixing up your CDs. Since I didn't really expect to see this type of software bundled with my CDRW drive anyway, I look at it as a bonus: I'm sure you can find something better on the web if you so desire.

THE CONS

I found the drive a little expensive. At over $400 Canadian it was almost double the cost of many of the internal CDRW drives I investigated. The convenience of being able to move it around from computer to computer is great, however; if that's useful to you, then the Backpack may be your CDRW drive. I find it unfortunate that I can't burn on the highest speed, even with what I consider a pretty fast machine. However, since I only burn occasionally, a few extra minutes is not the end of the world. If you run a business or need to burn many CDs daily you may be better to look into other faster drives.

THE PROS

This burner is reliable. Once I found the correct settings I never had a CD write session fail for any reason. I've burned 30 to 40 CDs without incident. The speed is consistent, and the audio CDs are always readable in any stereo I've popped them into. The software is quick and intuitive.

THE CONCLUSION

If you are looking for portability and ease-of-use, I highly recommend the Microsolutions Backpack. If you are looking for a cheap price, or a super-fast writer, then you may be better off to look elsewhere.

Recommended: Yes