CD Burner

[Liqui-Fly]

I have tons of pictures that aren't backed up and I'd like a nice way to store them. Is CD burner the way to go. Do they make ones that are external? What other options should I consider?

David

[mr.clean]

yes and yes ;)

[sho305]

I used one that was an external USB, it was slower like older burners but not bad. Used it on a laptop with no burner inside. If you have USB-2, get one of those it is faster. Also you can hook it to anything with USB to burn or play a CD. There may be other ways, but that worked nice for me. Got a good deal at compusa. I tend to like the plex and hp burners as I know they work...don't know if it matters. Don't remember what brand the usb one was.

[Liqui-Fly]

I don't download music or anything like that. Just want to be able to dump folders of pics and mini vids onto a CD. Thanks I'll start looking.

David

[sho305]

I used it at work, to backup data and pics. You plug it in and it looks like another drive. Had nice software you pick all the files you want to save just like a home computer, and burn it! Worked great, then I pulled the plug and took off with the laptop. As long as you have usb or a usb card/etc. And the usb2 will be much faster if you have that, and cost a little more.

Mine was a usb1, like these http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?srch%5Ftype=mfg&mfg%5Fid=4358 but I don't see the old usb1. That was two yr ago.

[baddjonny]

Here in New york there running as cheap as $19.99 and less after rebates for a plain ide internal.
jon b

[Gerben]

If it's not a laptop, just throw out your regular CD-reader en switch it for a burner. Get a decent brand (I like my A-open) not much more money, lot less problems. Get one with the NERO burning program included. Works well and easily.

For storing memories, get a good brand of CD's, not the very cheapest you can find. Some brands seem to fade after a while.

Gerben

[Rickracer]

...from Comp USA or Staples (don't remember which). Seems like it was about $60. Came with Easy CD Creator 5, (I already had Nero too). Works great, no complaints. Saved me from buying another hard drive too. I was out of storage. :cool:

[Rusrog]

I got the Phillips CDRW too and it kicks ass. Worked great right out of the box but if you go to Win XP you don't even need the EZ CD Creator software. XP has a good program written in...

Damn nice unit though...

Russ Rogers
Ft Worth TX

[sho305]

If you can use an internal, they are real easy to swap out. Though many new PCs come with them.

[83checkmateeluder]

nero burning rom is the best software for this process. it takes almost no time to make a cd. a zip drive is also nice for this and is supposed to be better for data related stuff but their cost is a llittle higher

[Rickracer]

Both dead. :mad: I didn't even use them that much. I wouldn't necessarily recommend them. :eek:

[sho305]

I have a zip 100 I had no problems with, but have heard of them dying. You can get cds for free sometimes now, so that is a great deal. On the other hand, the price is not bad for an internal/external drive now also. You are limited to its size and don't want to drop it, but it has its own advantages. I used the removable drives with good luck to transfer from a machine to another. If I get anything past my cd burner now, it will be many gigs in size to be worth buying. The industry(oops the %#@^ music industry) has really dissapointed me; we should have easy cheap storage the same size as current hard drives...this is not the 70s but sure feels like it.

[CrayzKirk]

You might look into a DVD writer. I've had good luck with computer geeks (compgeeks). They sell reconditioned stuff and company buyouts. A pretty nice one for under $200. Heck, that's less than a couple pistons, bearings and a gasket set.

CK

[sho305]

They had a DVD burner like 6 years ago. The media industry has screwed us out of them by having their legal force keep the standards up in the air...in an effort to keep us from copying movies, music, whatever people copy now on other medias anyway. They got so mad when someone figured out you could defeat their DVD copy protection by marking the disk with a sharpie; this after it had been hacked anyway. If anyone has a chance of making a hack proof media that you can't copy, it will be a government not a industry full of idiots like them. Now, the DVD is much too small for storage with the normal huge PC drives. It is cheaper to buy another drive and use that. If they change the standard, your disks will not work in anything else. They pretty much missed the window now for DVD burners, and DVD/CDs scratch just like old records anyway, so I never figured out what they were good for...certainly not a new media. It would be nice if you only want to store pics/videos/etc.

The Clinton copyright law gave them permission to be God with their lawyers so now we are seeing the fallout; few new products in tech/computers/software, grandma in court cause Johnny downloaded a 10 yr old song, no way to backup a computer, not allowed to use new technology (and I really hate that), nobody allowed to reuse old defunct software either to make new, and now they can get into your personal machine if they want. The lawyers and liberals have shut down the whole industry the way I see it. But people are fighting back, and that is why the music industry has fallen flat on its face. Brilliant people to loose over a third of your customers in only 3 years; and industry wide. You can't stop the future, they will learn but we will pay until then.

I greatfully thank our politicians for doing exactly nothing about any of this. Worthless people trying to get us back into the stone age or something. What is next, arrest people for recording the radio? What is free domain? Even Russia gave up on that crap.:rolleyes:

[sho305]

And I didn't even go into the Microsoft encrypting everything in your computer thing so you can only see what they want, though they can look at anything.:) So MS can get a huge payoff from the media companies by screwing you; and on something you bought from them as well that is not supposed to do that. Maybe worse than the phone co charging you for service while they sell your number...I'm tired of getting bent over.:mad: I will not support them, I will never buy a sony product again for example.

What if Merc put special bolts in their motors so nobody could take them apart? ;) Would you buy one?

[Liqui-Fly]

Bought a beauty off of e-bay for $25. Actualy it is pretty nice and it was new.. I just think it was old by computer standards. US Bus or something like that it works great. I only have 2 usb ports in my pc though and both were being used so my hub cost more than the burner hehe.

David

[sho305]

Maybe like the one I used and it was a USB 1, not USB 2 that is faster they sell now. I thought it worked fine, and still burned a CD in a reasonable amount of time. I only backed stuff up a couple times a week anyway and it was real handy for a laptop. Just plug it in when you needed it.

Sorry for the big blabber, just seems like real poor performance in this day and age. We should have much better products, and there is no excuse for this kind of political/legal garbage to be suppressing the market and new technology. That kind of thing will spell doom for this country.

[Liqui-Fly]

USB 1. Works fine for me and gave me a back up for my photos that I so desperately needed.

David

[sho305]

It I remember it still burned a whole cd in like 4-5 minutes or less didn't it? Fine for backup.

[at100plus]

How does the Nero demo version work? Does it expire in like 21 days or something or does it just lack some advance features?

[sho305]

I like the HP or creative burner software if that is what you mean. Not sure but I thought I once downloaded it all from their site free. I played with a demo but didn't like it...maybe someone else here has used it.