CD-Writers Lecture Summary
Taught by Blaine Davidson

Class ID # BD-05

Both a CD-R and a CD-WR drive will read your software and will be able to put the software into your machine. Both types of drives will read CD's, but only the CD-Writer can write or change the information on a CD-RW.

I prefer an external CD-Writer because it can be used on both my desktop and my laptop. An internal CD writer can only be used in the machine in which it is installed. Whether you buy a Gateway (and pay a bit more for it) or buy it from Staples, Circuit City or any of the computer stores makes little or no difference. The Gateway CD is probably manufactured by one of the companies which make the other CD writers and the Gateway name is placed on it by Gateway.

If both of your computers have USB ports, get a Writer that will work through a USB port. That is the easiest way to connect the writer and you can move it from one of your machines to the other without any trouble.

With respect to DVD's, unless you want to sit at your computer and watch movies, there is no reason to spend the extra money to get a writer or reader which will handle DVD's. Also it will cost a lot more than a writer for CD's only.

If this does not answer your questions let me know.