Along with smaller cable size, one of the biggest benefits of Serial ATA is its ease of installation. Because it uses a point to point connection, setting jumpers has become a thing of the past. In most cases, installation is as simple as plugging in the SATA and power cables and turning the computer on. Needless to say, it took only a couple of minutes to install Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer in our test computer. After making sure that the BWU-300S was recognized by Windows, I was ready to start installing the software.
Software Installation:
As I mentioned earlier, the BWU-300S comes with a CD full of software from CyberLink. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc. As you can see, the software and documentation is available in a number of different languages.
Once you select a language from the list, you'll be given a short list of options. From here you can choose to install the bundled software, check out the manual or visit Sony's user support web page.
Installing the CyberLink BD Solution suite is pretty straightforward. After selecting your preferred language and entering your customer information, you'll be presented with a list of components to choose from. Simply select the components you want and click next a few times. Once the files are copied over, you can start burning your own discs.
Documentation:
Instead of including one big manual, the BWU-300S's documentation is spread out between a number of small, fold out "guides." To help people get their drive up and running as quickly as possible, Sony has included a "Quick Start Guide." This guide takes the user step by step through the entire installation process and covers all the basics including how to mount the drive into an empty drive bay, hook up the cables and install the bundled software. The BWU-300S also comes with a "Product Information" guide that contains information about the drive's package contents, features and system requirements. If you need additional help, Sony's support website has a number of resources including FAQ's, guides and software updates.
Like the other Sony drives we've reviewed, the BWU-100A was very easy to install. Even though Blu-ray is still a relatively new technology, there were no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working correctly. If you need help for some reason, the documentation Sony has provided is more than sufficient. However, the way it is spread out can make it hard to find what you're looking for. Even then, the BWU-300S scores an 8 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.
