Targus PADVD010U USB 2.0 DVD/CD-ROM Slim External Drive - Black

This is a review of the PA905U external floppy drive. It works great. On Windows 7, it was total plug and play. It just worked as soon as I plugged it in. Same on Ubuntu! I ran about 80 disks through it, copying files, and image backups with dd. Max read rate using dd was about 55KB/sec. From what I can find online, that's approximately what the old internal 3.5" floppy drives delivered. Copying files from DOS slowed things down to 25KB - 40KB/sec generally.This thing reads 720K floppies, as advertised. The reviews of the other no-name ones say they only read 1.44MB, so those were out of the question for me. I was hoping this one read them as advertised, and it does.It's a bit loud. It makes a 500 Hz whine (a little over 500Hz), that kinda sounds like a small fan or a problem with the device, but I guess it's normal.The cord is 20" and has the ferrite bead. The front left and right edges are not rounded like in the photo; I think that's a copy & paste error. The back edges *are* beveled a bit as shown in the photo.

After downloading Windows SP3, my dvd-rom drive no longer worked. I spent hours online with an "expert" from Microsoft trying to fix the problem. My time is worth more so I splurged and purchased the Targus DVD/CD-ROM drive. I plugged it into the usb port and it was ready for use! I had read one of the other reviews on Amazon (a one star review) that said the tray was flimsy. The tray on my internal drive is flimsy too so I figured how bad could it be? To my surprise, this product is well made and feels very solid. The tray is better quality than my internal DVD drive. Don't even hesitate to buy this product. You'll be happy you did. By the way, I'm still working with Microsoft on fixing my problem. They even admit that it has nothing to do with my hardware.

Exactly what I need at an incredible low price. The Targis looks new and performs as new. I have tested it on My new Acer Aspire One (shortened Linux OS) and on my new Eee PC 1000 (XP Home OS). It's like the Targus was made for these little Wi-Fi/built in camera computers. Now I can easily install programs, view DVD's, save data to CD's, listen to music on CD, and view photographs stored on CD's - anywhere. And when I don't need an optical drive - like when going to a cafe or library Hot Spot, I just leave it home and travel lite. This combo is so cool.

As a CD RW, it's fine, probably 4 stars. But like a fool, I read the reviews and two of the highest ratings came from people who that they were replacing DVD drives with this Targus CD-ROM.One implied that he has watched movies while on plane trips. If so, it wasn't a video that he'd bought. I inferred that. Another said that his laptop DVD went out on him, and he replaced it with this. Again, I inferred that he could also use it for watching DVDs.Now I'll return this, and take my lumps because I'm not spending more than $83 to watch a DVD and all my CD drives work just fine.

I've had this product for a while it has been nothing but greatness! i needed it for my netbook and it has preformed wonderfully. The only problem was when i first plugged it into my usb port and i pushed the button to open it, it didn't open up right away and i thought it was broken but really my computer was just recognizing the new equipment and wouldn't allow it to open until it was scanned and all that jazz. In all this is a great product i have watch countless dvd's and stripped many cd's with it. This is a wonderful product!!!

I've had this for a few years and bought because my Toshiba tablet did not have a cd/dvd drive. It was one of the few drives that was self powered from USB. There is no way I could use this on a plane if I had to plug it in! It used very little battery life. Works fast and dependable. Very durable also. It's been to all 50 states with me and through TSA many many times. Never skips a beat! However, it is not a burner - reader only.

Bottom line, this product works exactly as advertised, no external power supply, light weight and slim. I have an "ultra portable" ThinkPad X60. The DVD only comes with the docking station. This product fills the gap so I can access CD and DVD drives when traveling without adding a lot of weight to my backpack. It consists of the drive and a special cable that plugs into two USB ports to draw the power necessary to operate, quite clever IMHO. And one of them is a pass thru so you only "lose" one port.

Purchased this drive at the same time with my Aspire One. The targus is small, quiet and performs as advertised. I especially like the rubberized coating, keeps it from sliding around and I imagine offers a little more protection if knocked or dropped. Works fine off just the USB, but has the ability to be plugged into the wall.

works right out of the box

It does the job

excellent

Exéllent