Outstanding writing capacity on dual layer DVD’s. The main weakness is while functioning on an "open disc" project; the drive has a difficulty formatting everything. I've tried reformatting my hard drive with different disc writing applications, and numerous firmware upgrades (including the latest 1.05) with the similar result. If (for example) you try to format a single layer DVD, the drive starts to format, then show an error note that the disc is unreadable, spoiled, and unrecoverable. I am using Windows XP completely updated. I have searched for this problem about this drive, and have come up with hundreds of threads complaining about this issue. Possibly in trying to get high speed writing, Plextor has ignored media compatibility. This drive obviously has some issues.