Looking for Windows 8 external dvd drive

[brycej]

Either writer or player.

Most hardware sites only list Win 7. Since apparently the Windows Media Player doesn't automatically play dvds, I am wondering what is available.

 

[HarmonyinSF]

Hi! Did u find solution? I'm looking for the same thing but for a laptop CD RW ..

 

[brycej]

Newegg.com - ASUS USB 2.0 Black External Slim CD/DVD Writer Model SDRW-08D2S-U

This worked Asus External Drive. Note that it takes 2 USB ports to power. It worked with Win 8. I suspect most usb drives will work.

 

[kipper]

If you have the USB 2/3 ports available most all external writers/players will work just fine for you. I am running a 5.25 inch internal Blu-ray burner installed in an external enclosure on my Dell laptop right now and it works great. The slim-line burners which are 2.5 inch drives enclosed will almost always require two USB ports since they not only transfer data but also draw their power from the ports.

If you look around you will find several external writers that have their own power supply and those will only require one vacant USB port.

Hope this helps you.

 

[znod]

Either writer or player.

Most hardware sites only list Win 7. Since apparently the Windows Media Player doesn't automatically play dvds, I am wondering what is available.

I am sure I am missing the point--about an external drive. But, if you need to play DVD's, then get Windows Media Center--still free for awhile. You would need to be running Win8 Pro. You could upgrade to Pro also.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Any will work (often the cheaper the better).

Don't waste your money on getting a "USB 3 enabled" drive -- the data transfer speeds of even the fastest DVD's won't get even to within a tiny fraction of USB 3 transfer speed. Bog standard el cheapo USB 2 drives are fine.

Note of course that W8 has the built in facility to read / mount virtual ISO's directly and play as DVD drives in multi media players such as VLC and also in data mode the mount command in windows explorer (now called file explorer will allow you to explore the data on the "Virtual ISO.

If you have another computer which has a DVD drive use that to create ISO images with something like AnyDVD and just save your .iso dvd images to external HDD and forget about a physical drive altogether for the other computer.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[HarmonyinSF]

Thank you!

Newegg.com - ASUS USB 2.0 Black External Slim CD/DVD Writer Model SDRW-08D2S-U

This worked Asus External Drive. Note that it takes 2 USB ports to power. It worked with Win 8. I suspect most usb drives will work.

Thanks very much! I just ordered & will give it a shot ! Seems hard to find one where specs offer windows 8 support so really appreciate your tip!