CD Burner

[RobS]

OK, got the new camera and now I have all these pictures to move around. We have two PCs at home but neither has a CD burner. I'm tempted to grab a Wally-World special at lunch today ($60) to get me up and running with the "kids" PC, then take more time to get something better (?) for the other machine. Right now I have absolutely no clue about these devices. I do know I have an open bay in each PC for an internal unit.

What should I be looking for in brand/quality/speed/features/etc? My principle uses will be burning pictures for transport, give aways and archiving. Am I wasting my money on the Walmart thing?

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JerryG]

I put a Wal-Mart burner in our kids computer about 2 years ago and it has worked very well. No problems at all.

 

[Gatorboy]

You may want to consider getting a DVD burner instead. Instead of burning your files onto a 700MB CD, you can burn them onto a 4.7GB DVD.

You can play and burn CD's with the DVD burner as well.

 

[Nasty135]

Rob, Why not use a thumb drive? hooks up USB and they are available from 64MB-1 GIG or more that will allow you to carry all your pictures and or data mixed in what ever files or folders you create... And they are cheaper than a new drive plus the media(Cd's) that it takes to create them. Very cool /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

And it is much faster and you will have no coasters(bad Cd's) when your done.... Unless you really want a burner for backing up data or will use a burner for making music Cd's

Flash drive (thumb drive)

 

[RobS]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll check out both CD and DVD burners. I already have a pen-drive which is handy for transporting the data but not very cost effective for archiving. I shot over 300 pics this weekend and culled them down to about 400Meg. That'll make a nice, tidy CD which I can make copies for my family members.

Keep the ideas coming, I'll let you know what I do tonight or tomorrow /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue">( they are available from 64MB-1 GIG or more that will allow you to carry all your pictures and or data mixed in what ever files or folders you create... And they are cheaper than a new drive plus the media(Cd's) that it takes to create them. ) </font>

I guess it depends on how cheap they are -- for example, for my use, I burn about 12 GB of images to DVD a week (3 DVDs). The cost of the DVD burner ($100) plus 50 cents for a blank DVD is pretty cheap over the long haul.

I don't believe those thumb drives would be very cost effective.

 

[JerryG]

They have flash drives up to 4 GB now.

 

[Nasty135]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( now I have all these pictures to move around )</font> <font color="blue"> </font>

That is the reason I made my suggestion.... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif easy for that purpose , But archiving is definately better to use the other suggested formats

 

[RobS]

Just back from Walmart where I got a Samsung 52X/something/something CD writer/rewriter/something/something for $45. Also got a stack of CD-Rs and sleeves to go with. Can't wait to get home, may even leave on time for a change. I'll post results tonight /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jinman]

Rob, I gather what you bought was an internal CD-Rom Burner/Drive. Do your current computers have CD-Rom readers? Will you pull the CD out and replace it with the new drive or add the drive so the systems has two drives? The two-drive method should make it easy to copy CDs, but may be a bit more complex on the installation.

For a final purchase, I'm going to recommend the DVD burner like Gatorboy suggested. For your personal archives, you can burn DVDs and burn CDs to give to relatives. I'm going to carry it one step further and suggest you buy an External USB 2.0 CD/DVD reader/burner. That way you can plug and play with minimum installation hassle and have a great portable backup device. You might also consider the dual layer DVD burners that allow up to nine gigabytes of storage.

At some point if you want to digitize movies and burn them to DVD, you'll be glad you spent the little extra money it will cost to go with the DVD burner. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif