I am totally new to this and educating myself through all of the threads. I just got a computer (not my first, but this new one still was only intended for basics like internet, cd writing, e-mail etc.) I am not sure of the capabilities of what I have and what I would need to additionally acquire in order to backup DVDs. If someone would be willing to enlighten me a bit I would be so grateful!
well, for starters you need a dvd burner with +- capabilities. Other than that you need to give more info on what you already have: Cpu type and speed- faster the better Ram type and amount- more is good OS- less hassles with xp regarding file sizes Hard drive space- want a minimum 10gb free at all times so i wouldnt buy anything less than a 120gb drive
Yeah I am just kicking myself now because I am discovering that this computer has a dvd-rom and cd-rw. I could have gotten the right dvd drive when I ordered the computer for an extra $54. I'm sure I'll have to spend more than that now if I want to upgrade it. Do you have any opinions on whether to change it internally or just get external?
Oh and as to the other info: Pentium 4 3GHZ 512 MB DDR-SDRAM 400 MHZ Windows XP 80 GB (I have 62.8 available right now)
I would dump the cd burner and get a dvd burner installed in it's place. The RAM you have is sufficient but if you find an extra 100 bucks in your wallet some day I'd buy another stick if it's upgradeable. Or is the 512 really two 256MB sticks?
From what I have been reading it sounds like it is not out of the realms of possibility for me. Might just need to get some add ons? My intent is to copy my two year olds DVDs beacause they inevitably get ruined by him. I wouldn't mind trying to do some for me too though! I am guessing that the shorter the length of the feature the easier process it is to burn?
zippy, so then I would have a dvd-rom on top of a dvd writer? And I would still have CD capabilities?
yes. you can read from the original in the ROM drive and then burn to the blank in the burner. DVD ROMs can read both cd and dvd rom discs and the same applies to burners. DVD burners write to both cd and dvd blanks.
It seems to me then like I should look into the dual drive and getting another 80 GB of hard drive space for what I would like to do.
you still have over 60gig free. unless you have plans to load it up with tons of stuff, you should be fine.
That is a much debated point. My opinion is NO. I've not had to use it. I've been fine with Shrink and Decrypter. Others feel that it is a necessity and recommend it without a thought(usually without reading what the actual problem is first). The best thing to do is to get your burner installed and download the free trial and decide for yourself. If after 21 days, you don't feel that it is worth the $40 dollars then you can uninstall it.
Okay, so to recap...to get off to a good start with DVD burning, I can maintain my specs above and just swap out the cd-rw for a dvd-rw, use shrink and decrypter, get some dvd-r disks and thats all I'll need? (besides my time and patience)!!
you can download anydvd for a 30 day trail period see how you like it and then buy it.but dvd decrypter and dvd shrink should work for the dvds you have since you said there two years old or so .the newer dvds with the new encryption is where anydvd will help like RE-2, Forgotten etc.but dvd decryptor has the updates too and can crack the new movies without anydvd.so it just depends on what combo you wanta use.i would start out with dvd shrink and dvd decrypter first get used to them and down the road use anydvd if you have too. happy burning good luck and oh yes use good blank media as in TY,Ritek,TDK,Maxell,Verbatim all are great and NO MEMEROX PLEASE its pretty much junk blank media. and if you want to buy it online try meritline.com or supermedia store.com .its free shipping and no tax so its a pretty good deal.
Thank you for your help, I appreciate it very much. I'm sure I'll be back on this newbie forum at some point!