September 2010
Beginner
336 pages
7h 29m
English
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Chapter 7. Adding a DVD Drive
Topics and tasks in this chapter
Identifying your type of DVD drive
Installing a portable drive
Installing an internal drive
Computers with DVD drives once drew envious looks. No longer were laptoppers simply cramming in more work during long flights. No, they were reclining the seats and watching their own in-flight movies.
Today, nearly every computer or laptop comes with a DVD drive. Windows 7 even requires a DVD for installation.
If your computer still doesn't have a DVD drive — or the drive's too slow or not working well — take heart: DVD drives are particularly easy to install. Netbook owners can simply plug a portable drive into their USB port, for example. Or, if your desktop's DVD player is acting slow or cranky, it's simple to upgrade it to something faster, or that plays the latest DVD lust word: Blu-ray.
This chapter explains how to buy the right DVD drive for your desktop computer, laptop, or netbook, as well as how to install it.
Choosing a Compatible DVD Drive
Just like hard drives, DVD drives come in three main types:
SATA (new style)
IDE (old style)
Portable (which plugs into a USB port).
Most computers can handle all three types without much problem.
Tip
Unlike earlier models, today's drives can handle nearly any type of blank DVD. You needn't worry about buying the wrong format.
In fact, upgraders need only ask themselves one question: Do I need Blu-ray?
Blu-ray, the sucessor to DVD, holds enough information to store a high-definition movie. (That's ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.