Friday, October 06, 2006

External DVD Writers

We all remember the humble floppy disk and how it ground away in our computers, trying to save little bits of information without becoming corrupted or damaged. Then came our savior, the CD-ROM, which managed to store a lot more information without the problems of corruption or damage. Of course, for a long time the CDs were read-only, so we could use programs or documents which were already saved to CD-ROMs but we couldn’t save our own information to them, so if we wanted to transfer our own files from one computer to another, unconnected computer, we had to rely on the floppy disk anyway. Then the CD-Rs and CD-RWs came onto the market, allowing us to save a lot of information onto disks, either once or, in the case of a CD-RW, time and time again.


Now another revolution has come about with DVD writers, which allow us to save even more information onto a disk than the CD-R and CD-RW allowed us to save. However, DVD-R and DVD-RW drives are only standard or options in some of the very newest computers, and many of us have perfectly good computers without DVD writers. For those of us who want to upgrade to DVD writers without going through the hassle of getting new CPU cases, external DVD writers offer a great solution to our problems.


With an external DVD writer we can use our own computers to make our own DVD movies or photo DVDs which we can then play on home entertainment systems. DVD writers are also great for storage and file backup, since DVDs can hold a ridiculous amount of information, especially if you’re saving digital photographs or text documents. Though DVDs are still good for transporting data from one computer to another, remember that not all computers are equipped with DVD drives. Often times this can raise compatibility problems, though with external DVD writers it’s an easy fix: you can just attach the external DVD writer to the computer you want to transfer files to and move the files that way.


Most external DVD writers attach to computers through either a USB 1.0, USB 2.0, or Firewire port; be sure to check compatibility with your computer and its connections before purchasing an external DVD writer. Also, remember that external DVD writers are also great for laptop computers since they allow you to burn DVDs while at your home or office and then leave the DVD writer behind when you’re travling with your laptop.

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