How to Choose DVD Rewritable Drives

DVD RW drives can read and write a variety of different discs.

A DVD-RW drive can read and copy all kinds of discs, such as a regular CD, CD RW, DVD and a DVD-RW. Nearly all electronic retail stores carry DVD-RW drives, and they are commonplace in modern computers. There are a few things to keep in mind when on the market for a new DVD-RW drive, such as its speed and what kind of drive your computer requires.

Instructions

1. Buy either an external or internal drive. You can connect an external drive from the outside of your computer through a USB cable, whereas you must install an internal drive inside your computer. External drives give you the option of connecting and disconnecting the drive when you wish, if you want to connect the drive to another computer. Internal drives are safer, as they are held in place by screws and have almost no chance of falling to the ground like external drives. External drives take up more space, because they are not hidden within your computer.

2. Remove the cover from your PC's case and look at the cables connected into your existing CD or DVD drives. If the end of the cable is small and rectangular, you must buy a SATA DVD-RW drive. If the end of the cable is large and connects into the drive via pins, then you must buy an IDE DVD-RW drive. SATA drives are faster and more efficient, and are exclusive on almost all new computers as of October 2010.

3. Look at the write speed of each DVD-RW drive you consider buying. The write speed is the length of time it will take the drive to write the data to your writable disc. For example, a 1X write speed has a transfer rate of 1.32MB per second, whereas a 16X write speed has a transfer rate of 21.13MB per second.

4. Look for DVD-RW drives that feature LightScribe technology. Use LightScribe technology to burn an image or text to any LightScribe-compatible DVD. For example, if you burn a movie onto a DVD disc, you can also burn the movie title or cover picture onto the disc as well.

5. Buy a DVD-RW drive that supports dual-layer technology. Dual-layer technology allows you to burn data to both sides of a dual-layer DVD, so you can include double the information on one disc. Dual-layer discs can hold 8.7GB versus the 4.7GB a normal DVD disc can hold.

Tips & Warnings

• DVD-RW drives will write discs at different speeds, so look for the speed for each type of disc. For example, the drive may write a CD at 56X speed, a regular DVD at 32X speed and a DVD-RW at 16X speed.

References

• Optical Storage Technology Association: How Long Does it Take to Record a Writable DVD Disc?
• LightScribe: What LightScribe Is
• BurnWorld: Understanding Dual Layer DVD Recording