ASUS ZenDrive Ultra Slim USB External DVD Drive SDRW-08U7M-U/BLK/G/AS

I have used this device on multiple machines to build, and to use, recovery disks on Windows 10 and Windows 11. No glitches, no drivers needed to be installed.

Varios meses de uso y sigue funcionando muy bien, lo he usado con Macbook

Très ergonomique simple d’utilisation et très efficace rien a redire si ce n’est j’en recommanderai un autre 😀 Je recommande les yeux fermés.

In this day and age most new computers don’t come with an optical drive. And why should they? Programs are downloaded or sometimes stored on a thumb drive instead of a CD or DVD. But if you’re anything like me you still have several programs that are on disc. Or maybe have files and photos you backed up years ago to DVD. I don’t plan to use a DVD drive on a daily or even monthly basis, but I figure it’s nice to have one around in case I need to reinstall an old program on a new system or if I get an album or audiobook on disc that I want to digitize.

I’ve gone through 3 external DVD drives recently looking for the right one and this one best filled my needs. All of them did the basics well, but there was one outlier condition that (for me at least) really set this drive apart, and that’s reading very full discs.

For example: I’ve found that sometimes long audibooks will try to minimize the amount of discs they need for a book by using as much of the allotted space as possible. They’ll use 73 minutes and 59 seconds of an allotted 74 minutes of play time if it means only needing 9 discs to record a book instead of 10. That totally makes sense! But of the three drives I’ve tested, two struggled on some tracks on those overly stuffed discs (likely when data was stored in the outer most or inner most tracks). This resulted in stutters, garbles, and static blips in the digitized files. This drive was the only one that consistently read in all the files correctly and resulted in clear, complete output.

This drive is a great value. It can read and record CDs and DVDs, even the long lasting M-Disc format. Mine even came with 2 M-Disc DVDs, though I’m not sure if that’s standard or just a promotion. It’s got an aluminum casing so it’s pretty sturdy.

It’s not perfect. It won’t read or write Blu-Ray discs. It’s also fairly slow compared to internal drives or external drives that have a dedicated power supply. If I were burning discs on a regular basis I’d probably want something a little faster. But for occasional use? It’s hard to find a better inexpensive option out there.

I usually do not write a review so soon for this type of purchase. I generally use it for awhile. I tested DVD RW and CD RW and they test good. I had a Macrium boot disk for imaging my system hard drive that works on boot up. I have a Dell XPS 8930. I started PC with the Asus DVD optical drive plugged in and the Macrium boot disc in the DVD drive. I started the PC pressedF12 and the Asus drive appeared, chose the Asus drive, and the drive booted to the Macrium rescue disk. So it will boot to the drive with bootable media inside the Asus drive.

It is light weight, will play DVD on one USB plug 3.0. I use two male type A plugs normally. It has a Y splitter cable with mini USB male into the Asus drive and two male A plugs to plugs into the PC. I do not know if it will burn with one type A male inserted into a usb 3.0 port or not. Perhaps it would but I must test it later. It may be for USB 2.0 two plugs are needed but not sure. I use both regardless if I’m using 3.0 or 2.0 USB ports, but later I will test with one plug in 3.0 port to see if it works. When I will test that part is unknown.

This little drive is plug and play without any of the software in the Asus box. It would be very handy to have the software though. The drive seems to be durable. Being that it is portable, be careful not to drop the drive when transporting etc.

It does come with 2 Traxdata M disc DVD R discs 4.7 GB, 4X.

I eject the disc and then unplug the drive rather than disconecting with a disc in the drive. The drive is fast enough. You will not be sorry if you purchase this drive with what I have learned so far.