Can anyone offer me some advice on how I can best install my new Sony DRU 800A internal DVD writer (yet to be delivered)? Apparently I need 10gb of hard drive space for it!? Is this really true? If so, I only have a piddling 16gb in total on my C drive and I just can't free up the space without losing tons of programs. I do have 80gb of space on an internal slave drive. Can I run the DVD writer off that? Or does it need to come off the master? Forgive my naivety, but if I make my 80gb drive my master and my current C drive my slave is there any way I can make a working copy of my C drive and transfer it to the new drive so that I dont have to reinstall every bit of software? Any other suggestions from anyone before I take a screwdriver to my computer and risk losing all my data?
In order to rip and burn successfully, it is recomended that you rip the movie to your hard drive first. This can take up 4 to 8 Gb of hard disk space. You also need a couple of extra GBs for temp files and system processes etc. You can rip the movie files to any drive you choose - it does not have to be your C drive. My rips are to my E or F drives that are on a secondary hard drive. Just rip to folders you create on your internal slave drive. You may need to use a program such as DVD Shrink to compress your rips to fit onto a standard DVD5 disk (4.36GB). DVD Decrypter is a good program for ripping and DVD Shrink is very good for compressing (both free). DVD43 is another useful free program that will run in the background. These programs are quite small and should be installed on your C drive. All programs mentioned are available through software tab at top of this page.