DVD Writers & External Cases

[Foolio101]

I have two DVD writers and two hard drives in external cases (both Usb only and Usb\Firewire) and have experienced all sorts of problems with them over the two years. For example, I cannot seem to write to DVD-R consistantly in my Usb case, but change the disc to DVD+R and it works a lot better. Also, I cannot seem to write to dual layer disc at all (I just get some sort of error before it even starts). The drivers that I have own over time are: LG 4140, Plextor 716A & Nec 3540 all with these same types of issues. I've read the reviews and have found that other users do not have these sort of consistant problems. For people who say try a different operating system, I have tried from Windows '98 to Windows XP Professional. I just wanted to see if some other users have weird problems with drives in external cases

[TBoneit]

I don't have problems with external cases, I'm running 5 right now, 4 USB2.0 and 1 firewire. OTOH I would not put a burner in them. My burner is hooked up to the secondary IDE along with my DVD reader.

They work quite well with hard drives but seem to have problems with a removable kit installed. Not really sure why as that should have been the perfect solution to a cheap ersatz hot swap. IE turn off the case, switch the drive turn back on.

Anyway if you can put the burner on the internal IDE bus as that will give you a faster interface, and no extra conversions involved.

Good luck

[Bodyslide]

I have a pioneer 108 in an external case with USB2. And have no issues with burning 8x DVD-R media. I have the older Pioneer 105 in another USB2 case and no issues at 4X on it.

[redwudz]

Kind of the bottom line is some people have no problems with USB external drives. But some do. Same with external Firewire drives, but usually a lot less problems.

You can't beat an internal ATA drive for compatibility and the least problems. USB depends on the controller, your system, your software, your drives, etc. USB 2.0 is mandatory for speed. But USB shares resources and they are limited. Firewire is more efficient.

Firewire is more dependable and seems to be more compatible with most setups.

Either one depends on a lot of variables to function problem free.

If you can, use internal drives. If you can't do some research to find compatible components and software. Just my opinion.