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LiteOn’s iHAS 324 DVD writer not only burns discs but can also erase them. This means you can safely dispose of discs containing sensitive data. Rewritable discs can, of course, be erased in any DVD writer, but the iHAS 324 can also wipe write-once discs. Sadly, erasing discs takes a very long time. Erasing a DVD-R took 24 minutes, while a DVD-R DL took a staggering hour and 14 minutes. Oddly, it was quicker at erasing DVD+R and DVD+R DL discs, finishing them in six minutes and 14 minutes respectively. Performance when writing DVDs was inconsistent. The iHAS 324 was among the quickest DVD writers we’ve seen when writing DVD+R and +R DL discs, but its performance when burning DVD-R and -R DL discs was merely average.
The iHAS’s inconsistent write speeds are disappointing, and it takes far too long to erase discs when you can destroy them in seconds using a disc shredder – which cost around £40 from www.maplin.co.uk. Samsung’s similarly priced and consistently fast SH-S223F is a far better DVD writer.
