how do i copy cd's & dvd's ??

pennymakespounds

we used to have a dell desktop which had 2 slots ..we'd put a bought cd in one of them .. a blank in another... couple of clicks on the nero buttons and a few minutes later a copied cd. ( family use only !)

we've just recently bought one of the good deals on a new dell 4700 and i included a "combo drive" thinking that's what i had /needed ... but it only has one slot ??

so how do i go about doing my copies now ??

seperately ... for daughter who lives away... and has no computer ... but occassionally wants to copy a cd ...can one buy " a thing" that does the job ?? Is that what "re-writers " are ??
any recommendations or examples appreciated.

ALSO !.. on both these points .. can one do dvd films with the same equipment as doing cd music ??

Help as always from MSE'S much appreciated.

Woby_Tide

you copy the cd onto the PC's hard drive, then youcopy from the hard drive back onto a CD-R rather than from CD to CD-R

and no, DVD's are different than CD's

miketebb

As Woby_Tide said you need to copy to your hard drive first, then from there to CD. Your machine should have the software to take you through the process (Roxio or Nero probably). That way you can also remove any of the tracks you don't like, or even make your own compilation.

You may be able to create DVD's - it depends what your combi-drive is. It could just be a CD reader/writer, it could be one that also reads DVD's, and it could be one that reads/writes DVD's as well as CD's).

Check your manual. Also, if you look in 'My Computer' then the name of the device will probably give it away.
(i.e. CDR/RW DVDR DVDR/RW etc.)

Chippy_Minton

You shouldn't have to copy the CD to your hard drive and then back again. Nero should allow you to select the same CD drive for the source (the 'from' CD) and destination (the 'to' CD). It will then prompt you to insert the appropriate CD and do the copying for you.

Woby_Tide

Chippy - where does the data from the 'from' CD go until it can be written out on the 'to' CD?

pennymakespounds

woby..i was just about to ask same !!!

mike ... the machine has a " dvd/cd-rw "

Woby_Tide

I'm guessing it's a DVD-ROM/CD-RW i.e. it will play DVD's but won't write them and it will read and write CD's, thats what I would presume if it was described as a combo normally(for a DVD writer I would expect it have specified the +/-R(RW) spec in it's description

pennymakespounds

what about my other point about a stand alone bit of kit that does everything ?

robnye

Chippy - where does the data from the 'from' CD go until it can be written out on the 'to' CD?

i think nero copies it to an image file on the hard disk

Woby_Tide

i think nero copies it to an image file on the hard disk

But Chippy said we wouldn't need to copy it to the hard disk.... ??? :-/

Woby_Tide

what about my other point about a stand alone bit of kit that does everything ?

not sure which bit you meant about for the standalone bit, but without a PC CD and DVD copying are reasonable expensive for parts, a standalone CD Recorder especially, looking at Richer Sounds they seem to be £150+, probably better off her buying a cheap second hand pentium2 for £100 and a £20 CD-RW drive to put in it at the end of the day. DVD writers are much the same without a PC, to copy DVD's you'd need a hard disk recorder which puts them in the £300 market, again a reasonable 2nd hand PC with a DVD-R drive for £40+ would work out cheapest.

In essence I think the answer is no to standalone units based on cost effectiveness personally