I think the drive itself is probably fine. Easy to install and pretty quiet, at least when reading from the hard drive. I connected this drive with an IDE to SATA adapter. I was never able to get the drive to burn the disc successfully. My computer either hung up halfway through the recording, or the recording completed but said it failed. I think it might have something to do with using an adapter. A direct SATA connection might be better, but there are no more available SATA connections on my computer. All I have is an IDE/PATA connection, so I use an adapter. I shoot two starts because the packaging is absolutely terrible. The drive comes in a plastic bag, not retail packaging. It is not protected by bubble wrap or foam. There are only a few plastic air bubbles in the packaging. The drive can bounce freely in the box. I'm not even sure if the item I received is even a new disc. And because the drive is so loose in the packaging, I'm not even sure if it wasn't damaged during shipping and handling. The drive comes with a software CD and a PDF user guide. You don't need to install any software to operate the drive. Windows will automatically install the drive driver. I found a suitable IDE/PATA optical drive, so I'll use that instead of trying to use an IDE to SATA adapter to connect a SATA drive.
ASUS DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G: High-Speed SATA Optical Drive in Classic Black
11 Review
ASUS Lite Portable USB 2.0 Slim 8X DVD Burner +/- Rewriter External Drive, Mac & Windows Compatible, Black (SDRW-08D2S-U/BLK/G/AS)
21 Review
Verbatim Slimline Blu-Ray DVD CD Writer USB 3.0 - M-Disc Ready | Windows & Mac Compatible | Metallic Black
11 Review
Portable External CD/DVD Drive - USB 3.0 Slim DVD/CD ROM Writer for Laptop - High Speed Data Transfer - Windows 10 Compatible (White)
11 Review