LG Electronics GE24NU Super Multi DVDRW (R DL) / DVD-RAM Drive - External, Black (GE24NU40)

I purchased this DVDRW burner to replace the thin cheaply made slim burner in my home computer which was not reliable. I am running on Windows 10 with a duel I7-7700 processor and 16 gigs of ram memory. As an amateur photographer and videographer I burn a lot of disks for organizations which I belong to ranging from slide shows, to DVD video disks, to data disks and I need a reliable burner. I have had a lot of good luck and reliability with LG Products and the reviews were good, there is always someone who is not happy. The item comes in a heavy duty cardboard box with very adequate foam protection for shipment, Includes an application DVD disk, Warranty card and guide, quick setup instructions. Hardware includes the drive which is very well built by my standards, power adapter and cable, USB cable. I use Verbatim PRO disks which I purchase off Amazon for my work. My computer immediately identified the drive once powered up on both the USB2 and USB3 ports. I use Cyberlink software to burn my disks.I tested 10 disks one after the other. With a high definition 1080I disk on USB2 port it took 31 minutes to burn and verify one disk, on USB3 port it took 24 minutes. I had no disk failures. I tested each disk from beginning to end to make sure that all scenes recorded properly and there was no defects in the video. I used an LG DVD drive, and a Samsung 65 inch television to display and saw no pixilation, no audio distortion, no video distortion. This is definitely not a portable unit, but well worth the price for a replacement external drive. I also tested it with a CD-R,CD+R, DVD-R, DVD+R disks and copied with no issues. Highly recommend this unit.

I am using this device on my Windows 10 desktop computer and it works right out of the box, no need to install software.It is also quiet and stylish. The rubberized "feet" on the bottom are *kind of* grippy. I have it resting on a fairly slippery workbench/table top and while it doesn't slip if pressing the eject button with minimal force, it will slip if I use more than minimal force. Not a big deal.Just a quick note about the bundled software. Obviously, the CyberLink stuff is all fine. I already have the full Nero suite though, so it is not super useful to me. There was one particular software item that caught my eye though: USBFast.I wasn't sure what this thing is for. Doing some quick research, it appears to be some kind of USB optimization that sits on top of the driver. It is not a driver itself. If I look at the device properties in the Device Manager, the LG DVD-RW shows that it is using the default Microsoft driver even after the installation of USBFast. So I was curious if it actually improved performance in any way. It doesn't appear to.I did an ISO image burn once without the USBFast software installed and once with it installed. Here are the results from ImgBurn:Without USBFast:Write - Average Write Rate: 14,761 KiB/s (10.9x) - Maximum Write Rate: 21,187 KiB/s (15.7x)Read - Average Verify Rate: 14,919 KiB/s (11.0x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 21,076 KiB/s (15.6x)With USBFast:Write - Average Write Rate: 14,866 KiB/s (11.0x) - Maximum Write Rate: 21,222 KiB/s (15.7x)Read - Average Verify Rate: 14,866 KiB/s (11.0x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 21,085 KiB/s (15.6x)So, basically identical. I uninstalled USBFast from my computer.

This drive was ordered to add to a new computer system. This new system did come with a upgraded Blue Ray Burner/Writer which to be honest I find almost useless. I am handicapped with Parkinson's Disease which causes a great deal of tremors and have trouble with hand movement. Unfortunately the Blue Ray is mounted sideways which makes it necessary to snap any disk into place. Well this is about impossible for me to do. The disk always ended up on the floor. A fix was needed so I began researching external drives. First thing I had to decide was what kind of drive I needed. Basically I needed something to play the nearly 300 CDs I have accumulated over the years. The other use would be to rip some music for friends. Never considered that the unit would be used for back up purposes as I purchased from Amazon a Seagate 3Tb USB external drive to cover the 512 Gb SSD drive and 2Tb hard drive installed in the computer. Well after much researching the WEB and Amazon reviews I wasn't really happy of the units I was finding. They all looked fragile to me and I need something a little stronger. I'm a member of a Computer Shopping outlet, no names, and decided to check them out with the same results. This Shopping outlet sends E-mails with additional matches you recently viewed. One of those matches came back with this LG Multi drive. After reading the specs and reviews on that site I decided to order. Of course being a bargain hunter I tried a few locations. I was disappointed to find the unit backordered by all of them. Even Amazon was out of stock but expected more stock in approximately 10 days with a shipping date on February 18th. The price wasn't the least expensive but being a Prime member shipping would be free. That and the expected shipping date had me purchase from Amazon. I received a order notification quickly with an estimated ship time of February 18 just as they said. I ordered a total of 8 items with that order all with 2 day shipping except the drive. I then received the standard shipping notice but I was informed that 3 of the items would be shipped the same date as the drive. I assumed they may had been backordered as well and didn't think anything more about it. The same day I received a shipping notice that the drive and 3 other items were being shipped and would arrive on the 15th. I ordered the items on Sunday the 7th. Yesterday the 9th my doorbell rang and there was the mailman with a package from Amazon. I assumed it was the other 4 items I ordered. I placed the package on the entry table and planned to open it today Wednesday the 10th. I have an aid to help me around the house and she asked if she should open the package and of course I said go ahead. When the box was open there was the LG drive, iPhone/iPad charging cords, a small LED lamp and a remote blue tooth shutter release for my phone. Somehow the computer gear arrived before the other 4 items. Confusing right?A little over two hours ago I set up the drive. Included in the box there is a USB cord, a install disk and a AC power cord. I thought the unit was strictly USB powered. Nope it has to be connected to AC power. It's really not a big deal but double checking the description nowhere could I find that fact mentioned. No big deal really. Plugging in the USB cord first and the power cord in second as instructed I immediately turned on the computer and Windows 10 notified me of a new USB devise. Clicked on the notification box and it brought me to my connected devises and sure enough there was the drive listed. I inserted the install disk and in a few seconds Windows 10 gave me a notification that software was available and what I wanted to do. Clicked on install and sat back. First some drivers, then unfortunately Cyber Link and finally LG drivers I guess. The Cyber Link is bloated and an older version to boot. I received Cyber Links newest software package with the Blue Ray and found that bloated as well. You will need some kind of player software to play DVDs and there are plenty of good ones available free on the WEB. Apple users will not need this software. To be honest I don't even think you need the software with Windows 10 Media Player but you better check. I immediately uninstalled this version of Cyber Link.Sorry to be so long with this review. The unit itself is solid. Better than the older installed drives. Not too heavy but heavy enough not to shift around like those other external drives which was reported in a lot of reviews I read. On my unit there are no rubber feet but it sits very well on my desk. There is a front button you push and a motorized ejection door. There is also a motorized insertion tray which other external drives fail to include. Once in the light on the front brightens up and the ( noisy ) drive motor starts spinning. It was just an audio CD to check things out. It was recognized by Windows 10 Player, iTunes and the newer Cyber Link software. I chose iTunes and made it the default player. All in all a pleasant experience.I gave it a 4 Star rating because of the following reasons. The need for the AC cord was not mentioned. Most likely the motor of this drive is a bit too power hungry for a USB port. Then the motor. It is a bit noisy but not all that bad. And last is the inclusion of the bloated software. It doesn't seem to let you decide whether you want it or not. The other thing is when finished loading it asks you to restart your machine. Pretty standard stuff until Windows tells you it can't restart as software is still running. If you tell it to shut down anyway it automatically brings you back to a fresh install which you can't get out of. It reinstalls everything and then you decide on each file whether to let it overwrite the first install or not. Very time consuming and ridiculous. Eventually Windows did restart with a forced shutdown. Maybe it was just a buggy disk I received. Do I recommend the drive. YES!The above review was written without any financial consideration, a discount or a free product. The item was purchased at full Amazon retail.