Keith Purtell

Responding to my own post for the benefit of archive-searchers. The Adaptec "Easy CD Creator" software provided with this burner works very well. It does have an annoying tendency to re-test the audio extraction speed of the source CD drive after each restart of the PC. Searching the config panels and help docs hasn't yielded a way to make it store the initial test results. If you buy the HP 9710i and are considering HP's "RecordNow" software, look out. After successfully using Adaptec software to burn about a dozen data and music CDs, I decided to give RecordNow a try. The interface was very intuitive. I checked the config settings and turned it loose on a data CD. RecordNow promptly produced a coaster. My first one! I changed over to a music CD and double-checked the configs, as well as several help docs on proper procedure. Another coaster! Decided to give the music CD another try. This time slowed the speed down to 1x. A third coaster! Since then I've gone back to Adaptec and had no problems. Cheers.

Although the packaging and help docs for the HP 9710i CD-RW describe this burner as compatible with NT, that's not entirely true. I had serious problems with the basic software install, and HP tech support finally admitted the 9710i is only compatible with NT Workstation, not the full server version of NT. Their email to me seems to imply that the Adaptec software that also came with the burner might work. But I'd like to know if anyone else here has ever gone down this road, before I become HP's software tester?