LG Electronics DVDRW (R DL) / DVD-RAM Drive - External, Gold (GP65NG60)

After using it with 20+ DVDs/CDs, this drive has been great! Still works excellent. Always buy good brand names like this one and avoid no-name brands (those fail quickly). Build quality seems good and is very portable. Cable length could be slightly longer, but it’s decent enough. Works great on Linux Mint and Windows 11.

UPDATE, April 2022: So now I've lost count of how many times I have used this LG Electronics External Drive, for copying CDs to my computer and also to burn computer files to CD media. If I had to guess, I would say it's been used a thousand times minimum, probably more. Still works like new, never a problem reading or burning anything. Lots of miles on this thing now, and performs flawlessly. I'd recommend this one and would definitely buy it again. FIRST UPDATE: After using this LG Electronics External Drive for a couple of months, I just could not be more pleased with it. I've already used it several hundred times. The built-in CD/DVD drive in my desktop computer stopped working after less than 3 years, although I did use it a lot- and I mean a whole lot. I wanted something simple to replace it with, easy to use, and with no bells and whistles and no internal storage. INITIAL REVIEW: When I received this, I plugged this drive into a USB port, and that's all there was to it! Windows Media Player immediately recognized this drive, and my other downloaded CD ripping program just needed one simple settings change click to recognize the drive. I would say this LG Electronics External Drive is comparably fast at ripping and burning CDs as the old one that came on my computer. I have not and likely will not use it to play or burn DVDs, so I cannot comment on that, however my guess is it will work fine for DVDs as well. It does sound a bit louder when operating than my computer's built-in CD/DVD drive, which I expected, as it is an external drive without the metal computer housing around it to pad the sound. I would not say operation is excessively loud, it is perfectly acceptable. The size is nice and small, and although it is light weight the 4 rubber pads on the bottom do a decent job at keeping it from sliding around on the top of my desk. Another review said this comes without a USB cable, which is not the case- included in the package box is a 2 foot mini USB cable. I bought a 3 foot cable thinking it would not come with a cable, but rest assured it does come with one. One cable is plenty powerful to both operate and power this drive with- no second USB connection is needed. There is also a programming CD included, which I'm not sure what is on it, and I doubt I will ever use it because this drive is doing everything I need it to do just out of the box. So, so far so good. It is working great and has been reliable so far. Who's to say whether or not it will last for years, or may not develop problems in the future. Most electronics do. But for less than 30 dollars, it was a good investment, and for ease of operation I feel it would be hard to beat. I know some of the reviews are negative, but so are several reviews on every external drive offered on Amazon. My initial impression is to give this one a try, I think You'll like it. I ordered it one day, and it arrived the next day, which is also a plus.

This item arrived in its box with the software CD, but there was no plastic insert so the drive was just rattling around in there, and no cords were supplied. It's pretty clear this was opened previously and is likely somebody else's return, but it worked perfectly, has been working consistently, and doesn't appear the worse for wear, so I'm going to hold onto it. Things to note: 1) The enclosed software CD was, for me at least, entirely unnecessary. I didn't expect it would be given modern technolog--plug and play, drive recognized, let's get burning. I had my first disc created less than ten minutes from opening the box. 2) The product description claims the drive reads at 24x but only writes at 8x. This is incorrect. The usable write speeds for this item are 10x ,16x, and 24x, and it has been working consistently at AWS (max) speed. So it actually writes a lot faster than it says it does. I'm one of those people from the early days who were told you should always write at the slowest possible speed to ensure success, but that's not necessary here. Also, if you try to write at any other speed than the aforementioned three, imgburn will just force you into the closest acceptable one after the process starts, so trying to write at 2x or 4x is pointless anyway. 3) This drive requires a *MINI USB* cable, not micro USB, and not USB-C. Mini is the oldest protocol of the three and I was actually surprised to see it still in use here, but look it up if you don't know what it is. This would have been a deal-breaker for me since the drive didn't come with a cord, but I happen to still have some mini USB cables on-hand, and the first one I tried worked great. On the bright side, unlike a lot of slimline external optical drives, this one doesn't have a fixed cable that's some ridiculously short length like 6" or something. Thus I could use a cord long enough for the drive to connect to my PC while actually sitting on my desk instead of balancing on top of the tower. Anyway, it works well. Just make sure to check it over for damage if it comes as badly packaged as mine did, and mind the type of cable it needs! UPDATE: My report on the write speed was not entirely accurate. The drive is indeed limited to 4x or 8x writes...for DVDs. I've only been using the drive to burn CDs, which it will do at its full speed of 24x. So the product description is *half* right. They really should point out that there's a write speed difference depending on what kind of media you're trying to create.

I grabbed this when the Superdrive in my eight year old iMac bit the dust. I didn't have the $80-odd dollars an external Mac drive costs, and was hoping that for the price I'd at least get SOME good use out of this one. And so far, so good. Admittedly, I've only had this burner for about six weeks. But in those six weeks, I've already burned over a dozen disks. The drive is reasonably quick and pretty quiet. And every disk so far has burned perfectly. I've also used it to watch a couple DVDs and to upload a couple CDs to iTunes. Again, so far everything worked fine. I haven't needed the included software as it was plug-and-play with my Mac. It is basically all plastic, so it's probably not realistic to expect a long life. But I'm one who usually treats his toys with kid gloves, so I'm hoping to get a decent run out of it. If I don't, I'll let you know! UPDATE (1/25/18) --- Approximately a year has gone by since my review. In that time I've burned roughly 200 DVDs (far more then I had planned on) and watched maybe a dozen movies. To date, I haven't had a single burned disk fail, and my little LG burner is humming along like nobody's business!! My initial thought with this burner was to pray I'd get six months out of it, then get another one. I certainly didn't expect this. This is undoubtedly the best $26 I've ever invested. On anything. I'd add another star if I could! UPDATE (12/12/18) --- Not quite to the two year anniversary of my purchase, and my LG drive is still running like new. I haven't used it as much the second half of this year, but it still answers flawlessly when called upon. My daughter started college this fall, and got one for herself to use with her MacBook. So she's a believer as well. UPDATE (02/02/20) --- Over three years on, and going strong! To be fair, as a general rule, I'm not working my burner too hard. But between my daughter's wedding and some other uses, I've probably burned 50-odd disks the last six months, and have had zero issues. In fact, I've probably burned 350 or so disks total, and I've had maybe two disks that didn't work. And frankly, in both instances, I think I had suspect disks. The best money I ever spent. Period.

Good unit for getting your old files and music stored on CDs into the new computer systems. It's a plug and play, easy to use and does not take up much desk space. It was priced between the highest and lowest portable drives.

I've had this DVD /CD drive for a year and a half. It has worked flawlessly. The only issue is its weight or lack thereof. Pushing the button in or sliding the tray in caused this little drive slip around on my desk. Easy fix. I glued a 1/8th inch thick sheet of lead to the bottom increasing the weight by a pound or so and affixed little peel and stick clear rubber bumpers (feet) to the bottom. Now its rock solid on my desk and the lead & rubber also acts as vibrational dampening. I'm a happy camper

I love this LG external drive. It has saved my life. I am a music addict and also old school so still have cds. I have a desktop computer only 4 years old and the burner drive totally died. I was lost without it and was stunned to see this great product and at such a reasonable price. I import cds to itunes and copy cds and burn cds form the computer. This drive does all this flawlessly. At first when I hooked it up it did not work and then worked incorrectly. I had not erased the previous burner software on my computer. I had to research and go into my computer and make changes to the actual drivers on the internal burner cd drive. After that had to restart the computer and then this LG drive worked flawlessly. It honestly works faster than the drive with my desktop ever did and I have burned over 50 discs with no errors. The drive is plastic but for me this in no way means cheap. Also the inside tray is somewhat fragile but it only means be gentle with it. If you don't want plastic get a different product. What I love about this external dvd/cd burner drive is that it is a great price but in no way falls into the "you get what you pay for" category. You get high performing excellent quality here. My only gripe is that using a desktop I must plug it into a vertical tower and with the short cord I can't bring the drive up to my desk. Need to keep it low. But that is because I am old school . The drive does vibrate but in no way does it bounce around. Can't recommend it enough. I keep it stored and plug it in when needed, it is immediately identified and works seamlessly. I have other LG products and can happily say their reputation of high quality is still intact. So grateful that when I did my research for an external drive I went with this one. Great product.

Like a "plug & play" external DVD/CD drive I previously bought & returned, this is not plug & play. My computer DID NOT automatically [usually almost instantaneously] recognize that this LG drive was plugged in to the USB. So of course it did not ask me what I wanted to do with the LG drive. There are no instructions with this LG drive. There is a Cyberlink Media Suite 10 allegedly "for DVD" that comes with it. So I assumed I needed to put it in the LG drive & supposedly it installed something on my computer to make everything "work". The fine print on the Cyberlink disc only says things like "Insert the disc and Autorun will automatically launch the program" [duh, for what?] and also on the disc it says "Bundled applications only for Windows 7/8/10" [whatever that is supposed to mean]. But, having "run/installed" the Cyberlink, the LG drive did not play a self-created DVD which used to previously play flawlessly on my computer's internal DVD drive [which is now broken]. Also saw something on the Cyberlink "document" downloaded & read on my computer that said [for?] Windows 7, 8 & 8.1 [DVD playing?], but not Windows 10, which is what I have. So, a confusing strike one. I was then able to play a commercial [store bought] CD, but not able to burn a CD, but the jury is still out on that. It could be an itunes issue. Stay "tuned" for a follow-up. This LG drive is made of plastic & is about as "solid" as something this thin made of plastic can be. To me, the spinning of the disc is not "noisy" - actually rather quiet [I expect & suspect the noise will get louder as the device ages, which of course is only natural]. But again, I have not burned anything with this LG drive [so don't know what kind of/how much noise it makes when doing so] and also unknown is whether that something burned on this LG drive will play in another computer, CD player, car player, etc. Well, how good is a drive that, even if it may be able to play & burn CDs, cannot play DVDs, and burn DVDs? For whatever it's worth, this LG drive [at least] does beat the prior drive I bought which could do absolutely none of the above. So, 2 stars right now, with follow up to come. __________ About a week later. Re-installed my itunes, which I thought was the issue as to why this LG did not burn a CD. Nope. My computer did not even recognize/detect that the LG was in the USB. When I clicked "burn" from either itunes or the installed Cyberlink Media program, nothing happened but my internal laptop CD drive that is broken opened. Crappy. Beyond angry & disappointed. Wasted a lot of time trying to burn a CD. Strike Three. Wasted more time calling an Amazon "tech" rep who tried to help, but of course, as mentioned in other reviews, was beyond his capabilities [not his fault]. He tried contacting an LG rep, but of course they were closed, where ever they were located, and obviously NOT 24/7 service. Strike Four. Product description/country of origin says "Made in China" but I found on the label "Made in Malaysia". So I am reporting incorrect product information. LG is a South Korea company, with allegedly a pretty good track record, so I am surprised. Can't burn a CD, can't play a DVD - not even gonna try burn a DVD. Absolutely disgusting. RETURNING this crap. Lucky all you folks for whom this product seemed to have worked properly. Downgraded to ONE STAR. 7-29-21 Just wanted to add something I forgot. This drive has received high marks & comments from the following: LifeWire 2-17-21; The Tech Lounge 5-28-21; ReviewsGarage undated; & NYTimes.com [updated 11-6-20]. So much for the "expert's" reviews.

Se siente endeble porque es de plastico pero funciona muy bien y es silencioso, solo lo conecte y comencé a pasar mis discos

Software was easily installed & instruction was precise, work well and hassle free. Love it!

Connected to MacBook Pro without install or anything prefect

Habe mir nach längerer Recherche im Internet dieses Laufwerk gekauft da es laut diverser Foren sehr gut für das fehlerfreie einlesen von Audio CDs geeignet sein soll. Heutige Notebooks und Tablets haben ja meist keine CD-Laufwerke mehr, so auch mein Surface nicht. Nach dem Auspacken das Laufwerk einfach angesteckt. Wurde problemlos erkannt und nach der Konfiguration von Exact Audio Copy waren auch die ersten 3 CDs schnell eingelesen. Das Ergebnis war erwartungsgemäß sehr gut. Etwas anderes als CDs einzulesen habe ich mit diesem Laufwerk noch nicht gemacht, daher kann ich auch nur das bewerten.

Esta unidad de DVD externa es muy ligera y está fabricada en plástico. El concepto ultra delgado es más bien delgado y definitivamente se nota una muy buena elección con respecto a otras unidades de otras marcas. La funcionalidad de plug & play con la tv no la pudimos probar ya que nuestra tv no reproduce video desde unidades usb que es como funciona el plug & play de este item. La unidad de disco es bastante rápida para grabar tus CDs y pasarlos a tu biblioteca digital. La unidad es ultra silenciosa ya que durante la lectura de CD o DVD prácticamente no se escucha ningún ruido al estar trabajando. La unidad viene con un CD de PowerDVD18 de Cyberlink pero en una versión de prueba de 30 días por lo que para ver tus películas en tu computadora deberás tener un software que pueda reproducirlas porque de otra forma no lograrás verlas. El alto de la unidad ronda 1 cm o menos. En conclusión esta unidad externa es un hardware útil que puede servirte en cualquier momento.