I have a good burner and I like to use it for just burning. I couldn't figure why it was taking me so long to rip a DVD, to find out it was only a 8x read. I want to replace the DVD reader, but I am not sure if I should just get another burner, or just get a dedicated reader? I have looked around the forums and got some mixed reviews, but nothing real clear. What I would like to know is... A) Should I get another burner or get just a reader? B) What is a fast reader that will read scratched media? C) When I hook this up, should what drive should I have as the master and which should be slave? I am some what new to all of this, but I got a good hang of things, but the hardware thing is causing me the grief! Any help will be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance for the help!
There will come a day when that R/W-Drive will not read or write to new discs without updating the firmware. To be honest, you really don't want to burn faster than 8X anyhow. Up-dating the firmware (if available) will keep you abreast of new technology in discs. Personally I'd keep the old drive and buy the latest and greatest R/W combo drive I could afford. As for master and slave configurations, my choice would keep the older unit as slave. Instructions on how to set the jumper(s) are on the box. Now the bad news....scracthed media will cause many problems so back it/them up pronto. Some drives are more forgiving than others when it comes to disc imperfections. A rule of thumb might be Cheap drive = cheap reults. Hope this helps.
