MicroSolutions Backpack USB CD-RW

A bit of a monster, but one that beats the competition on speed.
MicroSolutions has been producing external CD drives for a while now, be they slimline CDRom drives for notebook users or CD-RW drives for anyone wanting to press their own discs without opening up their PC. The company's previous drives have all been parallel devices that plug into the back of the printer port on a PC. That's still the case with the Backpack USB CD Rewriter, but in addition, this time it also offers a USB connection. As far as external drives go, the Backpack is a bit of a monster and the addition of some curves to the case does nothing to disguise its bulk. The reason for the jumbo case is that the 4x4x24 CD-RW drive is actually a standard IDE model, just like one you'd find inside a PC. Add a chassis to hold this and some electronics to convert the drive's IDE interface into something that can plug into the back of a PC and you can't help but end up with a pretty hefty slab of plastic. The Backpack can connect to a PC via a parallel or USB port but the interface on the back of the drive is strictly parallel (so the USB lead is technically a parallel to USB converter). This makes little difference to the drive in use and whichever connection you use, you can still connect and disconnect the drive without having to restart your PC. MicroSolutions bundles Adaptec Easy CD Creator for creating data and audio CDs, as well as Adaptec DirectCD for drag-and-drop CD creation from the Windows Desktop. At £249, the Backpack is £20 more than the Iomega Zip CD USB and is markedly less stylish but it is quicker at reading discs - 24x compared with the Iomega's 6x.

Verdict:
Big and bulky it may be but the MicroSolutions Backpack USB CD Rewriter does the job well and is a doddle to install, whichever port you choose to plug it into.