Need external CD/DVD recorder-player, advice?
 

About a year ago, I purchased a new Dell desktop computer (with windows 10), but unfortunately it came without the option of a CD/DVD recorder/player. I now need an external recorder-player for 2 reasons… making copies of CDs and saving digital tiff, raw and jpeg photos on DVDs. 8 months ago I purchased one of those cheap light skinny external recorders for $30 and it literally fell apart in my hands. I returned it to Amazon. I am looking for a more solid larger unit (with a long cord if possible) to hook up to my computer. The only ones I have found were the OWC Mercury Pro External USB 3.0 Blu-Ray (and another OWC called Mercury Pro 24X DVD - 48X cd read/write) and one more called the Buffalo MediaStation 16X external BDXL Blue Ray Burner. For what it’s worth, the OWC had slightly better reviews. So I have a few questions as I’m not very computer savvy…. Since these say “Blue Ray”, will they only work with blue ray, or will they work with regular CDs and DVDs? Can anyone recommend one of these or perhaps another model that is similar size and weight? It certainly doesn’t have to be a blue ray model as I don’t use blue ray. Any suggestions or recommendations would be much appreciated as I really need to add an external player/recorder to my present system.

All "slim" 8x units are junk, fragile, flimsy, fail in a short time. That's always been the case.

All BD-R drives are backwards compatible with DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW. Some may also do +R/+RW.

You may be hard pressed to find a good USB3 external enclosure unit with it being BD-R.

And OWC is a great brand, they never skimp on quality, like chipsets or drives.