I/O Magic DRCDRW4848 48x16x48 Internal CD-RW Drive

The original drive worked well up until about 2.5 months ago so I contacted the IO Magic RMA department, got an RMA number and sent the drive to them. After a few weeks I got a replacement drive (which was not branded as IO Magic and had a different faceplate from the one I sent in) an lo-and-behold, it was also defective... It could burn disks at 12X and lower, anything higher than that and the disk would be full of errors (checked using Nero's CD Quality check). I wasted four CD-Rs from different manufacturers finding this out.

So I send them another email, telling them the replacement drive was bad as well. After about a week I got a reply that said 'sorry about that, here is a new RMA # and we'll have UPS come pick up the drive within 2 business days'.

'Well that's nice', I thought. And it would have been if only they had picked up the drive, which they didn't. A week later after sending them an email (generating no response) about why they had not picked up the drive, I gave up and sent it to them on my own nickel.

Now I have received the replacement drive for the replacement drive and I am almost 100% sure they just sent me back the same drive again!!! Accompanying this defective drive was one piece of defective media!!!! A paper sleeve with a CD-R that was severely scratched and which had been written on already (though the disk was unreadable. They probably wrote it with the drive they sent me...).

I'm telling you. Do not buy any products from these guys if you ever think you're going to have to deal with their RMA department and support. And chances are you will.

And you know the funny thing is I don't even need this drive. I have three other fully functioning CD-RW drives at home (BusLink & 2 Sony). At this point I am more interested to find out whether they are actually going to honor their warranty. And it makes for a good conversation topic when talking to friends.

It is amazing how big a difference good support makes. When it is there, it builds brand loyalty, when it is not, it makes you want to sit down and share it with the world so they will not have to go through the same pains.

I would highly recommend not buying any prodcuct sold by IO Magic under any of their brand names (I/O Magic, Hi-Val and Digital Research). There is a high chance you'll be buying a piece of junk and if you ever need support, you will not get it because they don't believe in providing their customers with support.


HAVE BEEN USING FOR SIX MONTH WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM   September 4, 2003
S. Dhaduk (Texas, USA)
HAVE BEEN USING FOR SIX MONTH WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM. UPTO 48X SPEED, SILENT, WORKS GREAT, GREAT CHEAP PRICE FOR BURNING. I AM HAPPY WITH THIS DRIVE.


Very pleases with the product   July 4, 2003
Nick (Lutz,FL)
For months I was looking for a CDRW drive that cheap but a very good one with a trusting company name. I walked in RadioShack the other day, and just happened to pick this up. I installed it in my tower, and now it has been 4 monts since I last bought, and hasn't failed me yet. I think the only reason people are arguing is because they don't know how to use the recorders right.


Piece of junk   December 20, 2002
Zach Jorgensen (Mobile, AL United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Probably the worst CDRW I have ever had the misfortune of using. I have experienced the same issues as the other reviewers. None of the CDs which were supposedly burned successfully are recognized in any drive. Even when it did work (which was not long) it said it was burning at 48x, but it took it almost 15 minutes to burn a cd. If you are thinking about buying this burner, you might as well go ahead and throw your money in the garbage...


Poor, poor product!   December 7, 2002
Lelisia E. Hall (Ga)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Mine also worked for about a week, and then the disks it claimed it has successfully burned would not be recognised by any player, AND if I tried to play them, they would lock up the computer or the DVD player at the television set. Poor product! The version of Nero bundled with it will not work with any other drive either. Even the construction of this drive is cheap and probably wouldn't last long----if the drive worked long enough for this to be an issue!