External cd drive

doshsaving

I'm looking for the cheapest possible CD drive (as my laptop's is broken) just to enable me to record my photos, data etc onto CDs ready for my new one.
What kind of price is good value? I really didn't want to spend more than £10 but can't find any. thanks very much, DS

[Deleted User]

Get a cheap crossover network cable and copy the files over that way instead

f1charlie

If you want to write to CDs don't you want a CD or DVD writer rather than just a CD drive?

Or if you don't fancy the cable way above, what about a USB memory stick?

coolagarry

A cd/dvd writer is going to cost you about £40 including postage
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139419
You can buy a lot of memory stick for that. A local pc shop may be able to fix you up with a second hand one.

doshsaving

Would a memory stick work for long-term storage? I have large quantities of photos, music etc, so thought CD writer was the only way?

f1charlie

You only mentioned that you wanted to use it to transfer data!

CDs/DVDs would be best for long term storage.

esbo

If you are going to spend £40 in a DVD writer why not buy an external hard drive for
£60? That would give you 500GB of storage, the equivalent of 100 DVD's.
When you add up the cost of the writer, the DVD's *and* wallets or cases to put
them in, that £60 don't seem to much really.
Not to mention the amount of time you save burning and copying disks.
No big pile of DVD's either.

Anyway if you want a solution for £4.50
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Black-Samsung-SC-148-CD-ROM-drive-48x-Compaq-232320-001_W0QQitemZ320271278402QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320271278402&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318

Cheaper than 20 cigarettes!!

Or take you pick from here
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/_W0QQType28035aZCDROM7628a244QQ_dmptZUKQ5fComputingQ5fDrivesQ5fStorageQ5fCDQ5fDVDQ5fDrivesQ5fET?_nkw=cd+drive&_sacat=165&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270

sysadmin

esbo wrote: »

Anyway if you want a solution for £4.50
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Black-Samsung-SC-148-CD-ROM-drive-48x-Compaq-232320-001_W0QQitemZ320271278402QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320271278402&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318

Cheaper than 20 cigarettes!!

Or take you pick from here
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/_W0QQType28035aZCDROM7628a244QQ_dmptZUKQ5fComputingQ5fDrivesQ5fStorageQ5fCDQ5fDVDQ5fDrivesQ5fET?_nkw=cd+drive&_sacat=165&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270

What good are they? They wont allow the OP to record to CD or DVD's....

I agree that getting a external hard drive would be a better option.

f1charlie

Ideally both for backups in case of failure of one or other!

sysadmin

f1charlie wrote: »

Ideally both for backups in case of failure of one or other!

Nah, I have a Terastation which runs in RAID 5 (basically 4 hard drives sat together, the data is then split between the 4 drives so if 1 drives fails the data can be rebuilt from the other 3) this has a 450GB capacity.

I then mirror all this data to another USB external hard drive which is kept in the safe at my parents house.

All the real valuable (well sentimental, that could never be replaced) data like photo's, video's of the kids etc, is also backed up on the web just incase..

Better to be safe than sorry

esbo

sysadmin wrote: »

What good are they? They wont allow the OP to record to CD or DVD's....

I agree that getting a external hard drive would be a better option.

OK maybe the cheap one will not record, I thought they all did these days.
There are plenty of others but they cost a bit more.
Not sure what he wanted anyway, PC World don't sell CD drives anymore
apparently. I have had too much trouble with CD's, faulty disks, faulty drives
and a box full of coasters. I just cannot trust them.