dhcernese,
Many members, including me, hold the HP burners in high DIS-regard! If the return policy of your retailer allows you to return or exchange the HP drive, then get a BenQ or Pioneer or other brand of burner that other members might jump in an suggest. Many members believe the BenQ is about the best because of it's high quality, user accessible, bitsetting utility for buning +R SL or DL media to DVD-ROM format. Get your money back quickly, within the return/exchange time frame but study what you need in specifications before you buy again.

Just my opinion, but Sony burners of old were fine. But I avoid Sony (and liteOn because of their association with Sony via OEM) equiptment now because of my anger over the rootkit abomination and because Sony is so big in the entertainment industry that I don't trust them not to (at some time) put a kink into the firmware of their players or drives that inhibits reading, ripping or recognizing backup media vs original DVDs.

Whisperer