OWC Mercury Pro 16X Blu-ray, 16X DVD, 48X CD Read/Write Solution

Ive only had this for a few days, but I know what works and what doesnt so far. The Maxell DVD-R does not record. I got this message for three different discs: MEDIUM ERROR, 0x0C, and WRITE ERROR. No problems with the Verbatim DVD+R and DVD-R discs.

I’ve been using external enclosures for over 25 years, and purchased this to house a UHD blu ray r/w drive. Construction is very solid, as it’s basically a chunk of aluminum with a metal tray to which you bolt your drive. Assembly couldn’t have been easier, and the rubber feet are soft without being spongy. As another reviewer put it: not as well finished as a MacBook, but still very nice. When attached via USB pass thru to a Windows VM running on a RHEL host I was still able to do firmware updates on my drive, which was quite nice (vs having to do some sort of direct attachment). The power switch allows for resets of the drive quickly, which has come in handy when I’ve gotten into a bind (of my own creation, not any fault of the enclosure). Highly recommended if you need an external drive for any of your projects.

Not a techie. Just needed an enclosure for a blu-ray drive in a gaming computer pc that hasnt an optical drive in sight. Dont review as often as I once did but I did want to give this product its kudos. It is solidly constructed & easily contains (with minimal installation) your drive. No vibration...no annoying sounds...easy open...easy close. It reminds me of products from years ago where they took the time to do it right. When they took a little pride in their workmanship. Cannot over state the fact that this is a product with which you will be very pleased. I consider it the best optical drive enclosure on the market period. She who must be obeyed just commented yesterday on its heft when she was dusting around my computer desk (which I have told her not to do because of static electricity - Some of those modern dust mops are static factories that Tesla could have used to light up Colorado Springs - but thats another story) The point is even she noticed its solid build enough to say something. Highly recommended!!

I want to be able to archive data and photos to M-DISC so they wont get lost or erased over time. This let me keep my M-DISC drive because most new computers dont have 5 1/4 in slots for drives anymore, and even if they come with an optical drive, its highly unlikely its M-DISC write compatible. The enclosure is well built out of aluminum and the drive mounted solidly. I appreciated the grommets to isolate vibrations. The power supply is rated at 3 Amps, so it should handle just about any 5 1/4 in form-factor drive. It has a USB 3.0 interface, but most of my data transfers wont need the top speed because the optical disks just usually arent that fast. I like that it has a power switch, so if I want to turn it off, I dont have to pull the power cable out. Its a bit pricey, especially considering the price of most bare 5 1/4 in optical drives these days, but it is solidly built and will let you keep your drive for many years to come.

This enclosure is a very solid and hefty product. All of the eight drive screw slots have rubber grommets. It comes with rubber feet that screw on after the drive is inserted. My desk has a glass top and I was able to operate a bluray drive with almost no vibration of the enclosure. The enclose has a security slot for putting some cable in if you are installing this somewhere that needs it. The only part I didnt like was that the USB cable is comically short. For the price, would it have been too much to ask to give another few inches of USB cable? I think some of the sata cables inside my computer are longer than the cable for this drive. An enclosure like this makes a lot of sense if you still need to use an optical drive when more and more computer cases are not including slots for them anymore.

It works and records all types of CD and DVDs, as well as some other discs that are rated to last a long, long, long time. VERY COOL. It is a USB plug-in unit, so I can use it on any/all of my computers. Excellent. Also, I said the Tech support was 5-star, but it has never needed tech support. I have had this for many years and I have had NO PROBLEMS. I wish that all electronics worked this way.

SO VERY GLAD I ordered this external drive enclosure! I couldnt be more pleased. Initially I considered this OWC Mercury Pro enclosure but the price put me off considering this was just a box. Instead, I ordered a different, less expensive external drive burner (not an enclosure). I was very disappointed in its performance. There were problems like: 1) empty folders of supposed transferred data, 2) inability to read a disc, and 3) a wobbly sound when a disc was put in the drive, sometimes it only idled - going round and round in the drive. Fortunately I discovered these issues while the device could be returned. After my experience with a less expensive external drive, I now understood the higher price of this external drive ENCLOSURE. It is a sturdy quality piece! My 2014 LightScribe burner fit perfectly into the enclosure drawer (my term for it; not sure of the proper technical name) and the connections, at the back wall of the drawer, were simple. Just plug them in. The burner is secured to the drawer with 8 screws on each side and the drawer is then slipped into the outer sleeve of the enclosure. The power adapter cable and the USB cable connect on the back side of the box. I plugged it into an outlet, put the USB cable into a port on my desktop, turned it on and it ran without any problems. I used it immediately. It works flawlessly. My advice - if you have a good optical drive (less than 6.77 deep) that you have not been able to use, BUY THIS ENCLOSURE. It is money well spent.

The Enclosure is well made and works well No specification on what drive sizes work -mine didnt fit, had to drill new holes in DVD player in order to line up with mounting holes (only did this I couldnt find an other enclosure) No Instuctions Includer.

First of, its well made, but the instructions out of the box are non-existent, but the quick start guide has a link to instruction, make sure to look at that. I say this because you might be expecting the internals to have a pcb with sata and power connectors soldered to the board but that is not the case. You have to first take of the outer shell of the enclosure then plug the cables in. Once all the screws are in place it might as well be a beefy external drive that came without any assembly required. Very nice. The biggest piece of advice is to watch what you plug into the port next to it. Im not sure if it takes up all the bandwidth allotted to the individual soldered hub on the mother board or it is a power issue, but which ever it is the enclosure + blu ray drive take up a lot of it. This cause a few issues for me like my Bluetooth devices got a little buggy bc it was plugged into the same mother board usb hub as my bluetooth adapter dongle thingy. After I reorganized my usb arrangement it was all good. Let me be clear I highly doubt this is an issue with the product and is likely due to the way power/pci lanes are split between usb headers. Great product, looks great and easy to use. Just be careful with how you sort your usb devices because I personally ran into an issue. You might not, scratch that you probable wont so buy this thing its great.

I used it to transfer 400 music CDs of my fathers to the laptop and it reads very fast and does so without errors as far as I can tell.