Freecom Classic External CD-RW drive.

My computer only has a standard CD-rom drive, so I decided to purchase a CD Rewriter as I wanted to be able to save any programs I liked, while I reinstalled Windows, or if I had a problem and a program needed reinstalling.
It has proved very useful for that and I now automatically save any good software I download to CD, this saves a lot of searching if you need the installer later.

When I decided to get a Rewriter I looked at several models and finally decided on an external one, because it is easy to install and also if I change computer I can swap it with no hassle at all.
The disadvantage of an external model is the speed, although the Freecom works with USB 2.0, ( High speed USB ) I only have USB 1.1, ( Normal USB ) so the writing speed is quite slow at 4x, the reading speed is also slower than an internal drive, I cannot give you an exact figure for that as I can't remember it, but it does seem to cope fine with any normal use.

Installation is simple, it comes with its own power supply and USB cable, just plug it in and if you are using Windows ME, 2000, or XP the computer will automatically detect it and sort out drivers for it.
If you are using Windows 98se you will need to install the drivers from the floppy disc supplied, when Windows asks for them.
Your CD drive will now read CD-roms, but to be able to write to CD-R's or CD-RW's you will need to install some more software.
The Freecom drive comes with Roxio Easy CD Creator 5, this is quite a nice bit of software, but one thing it does not tell you on the box, is that about half the functions of the software are disabled! not very good in my opinion, when you have just paid one hundred and twentynine pounds for the product.

So what can you do with the software? Well you can easily create a music CD, although I only had a play with this as its not something I use, it seemed easy enough to use.
You can also make a direct copy of a CD, this is a simple one click operation, recording from my CD-rom drive to the CD-rewriter drive is fairly reliable, but my CD-rom drive is a bit erratic and sometimes stops, which ruins a CD-R disc. So usually I use the setting that copies the CD to my harddrive and then writes it from there, using this method is one hundred percent reliable.
The best thing you can do with the software is to make a data CD, basically you format the CD-RW, ( You can use a CD-R, but then you can't delete files from the disc ) and then you can use it just like a giant floppy disc, dragging and dropping files to and from it. There is a project manager program included for use with data CD's, but I never use it as its easier just to do it manually, although the manager does give you the option to create a bootable CD, useful if you have a very modern PC with no floppy disc drive.

So what is the drive like to use?
Well its quite a solid, heavy piece of equipment and it seems to be very well made, the draw slides out very smoothly and closes very quickly. ( Mind your fingers! )
When running at normal speed for say a game, or an encyclopedia program that requires a CD to run, it is very quiet, only making a bit of a whine when it speeds up to full speed for the initial loading. In fact it runs so quietly and smoothly, that I use it in preference to my internal drive, unless I need to access a large file very quickly.
So in summary, I found the drive to be excellent and I would certainly recommend it, the software is adequate, but if you make a lot of music CD's, you will probably want to budget for buying a better bit of software, or upgrade to the full version of the supplied software, or you could look round for a freeware program to do the job.

Although I paid 129 pounds for the drive, I notice the price has dropped to well under a hundred pounds nowadays. This drive is not shown on the companies web site anymore, but it is still available on some retail web sites and if you live in the UK you can still find it in most PC shops.
You can find information about newer Freecom drives at: http://www.freecom.com

Rob Goldfish Web Site

Copyright 2005 Rob Goldfish.