DVD ReWriter Information
 

I may buy this DVD ReWriter from PC World. I have Windows ME, what will I need to do to install it successfully?. Will I need any free USB or Ethernet ports? Where is a tutorial with step by step instructions on how to install it. Thanks In Advance

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

Its a INTERNAL DVD Writer. So No USB or FireWire leads.

They are easy if you can plug the lead in the back? Are you keeping old CD Writer/DVD Rom in PC?? Or swapping them over

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

I think that an IDE cable is all that is required to install it. I would like to assume that there would be software and drivers on a CD for it to work, but any form of CD/DVD wrinting software should be fine with it

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

Currently I have 1 CD-ReWriter Drive and 1 DVD ROM drive, which below it has a spare space. That is where I will install the DVD ReWriter Drive. So I will have 1 CD-ReWriter Drive, 1 DVD ROM Drive and 1 DVD ReWriter drive.

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

Hi BigDave1

there are usually only 2 IDE sockets on your motherboard, each will take two devices as master & slave. Thus max 4 devices.

As you already have 3 devices installed - 2 optical drives & a hard disk, one of your optical drives is going to have to share an IDE socket with the hard disk, to fit the new drive.

The problem here, is that IDE devices run at the speed of the slowest drive on the channel, so by sharing the socket, you will slow down your hard disk.

Possible solutions - an extra IDE card, which will give more sockets, or ditch one of your other optical drives & directly replace it with the new one - bearing in mind that a DVD writer will read & write cd's as well as DVD's...

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

Thanks alot you have been very helpful. :) I wil replace my CD-ReWriter with the DVD ReWriter. Will it be as simple as just unplugging the CDReWriter and then the plug the CD ReWriter used will fit directly into the DVD ReWriter Drive? Then installing the relevant drivers and software and it will work?

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

Its dead easy -
Assuming that you have a "standard setup" of the 2 existing cd drives on the secondary channel - one being set as master, and one as slave. And the single h/d is on the primary channel.
Then your only option is to check that the jumper is set to MASTER, and set the new drive's jumper to SLAVE. Windows (all versions) will pick up the new drive, and install the driver needed (its a generic MS driver).
If you have Win XP - then you burn to CD from within Windows - restricted in the type though. Best option is to install Nero or whatever burning application they gave you on CD. Now you're done.

The only caveat of connecting any any of optical drive (CDR/DVDR) on the same channel as the h/d is that you may suffer from performance degradation on the h/d - and also high contention on the same channel when burning.

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

yup - what he said ^

- providing you get the jumpers right, it is literally a case of swapping the leads over, by far the easiest way, as you avoid messing with the connection to the motherboard, which is, usually, more inaccessible.

there are no drivers to install, it works as a standard IDE device, drivers for which are already there.

If you already have burning software for your cd writer installed, it may be worth thinking about whether it will be compatible with the new drive, or whether to uninstall it & use the software which came with the new one. In general the system doesn't take kindly to having, say, Roxio & Nero both installed at the same time.

- one caveat here is that often CDRW disks won't work with Nero, if they have been formatted by Roxio & need re-formatting, to work (they will read but not write, in my experience).

Your existing DVD playback software should work with the new drive, too, unless that came with a newer, better version, you should be able to keep it.

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

Id go with the pioneer 109 but only cuz pioneer are the only ones i use lol lol

Re: DVD ReWriter Information
 

The slowdown rule doesn't always apply... I've run an ATA/66 HD (master), with an old CD-RW (PIO4 + non-ultra DMA), with no loss of speed, With a DVD writer and Combo on the other channel, I deliberately paired the slowest writer with the HD, for the best chance of a "same channel" source and destination write (especially as the only reason I kept it, was a quirky player that only accepts some old media written slowly - maybe the media would work the same in another drive, but I didn't want to break the combination up).

If you have to share with the HD, I'd always go for the reader, or the slowest writer.

PS. Make sure you get the master/slave combination right, or it will lock up at boot...
A single drive should always be Master, though sometimes it will work (even though it shouldn't) as a slave