Burning options for my Dell notebook

[Pacman]

Computer question, guys. I have a Dell Inspiron 600m notebook that I use now as my main PC. I also have a 3 or 4 year old Dell desktop PC that's great, but I tend not to use that as much day-to-day since getting the notebook.

Anyway, when I bought the noteook, I foolishly didn't purchase the DVD/CD burner option, insteading just getting a DVD/CD Rom drive.

Now that I have an iPod, and use my notebook for all my iTunes stuff, I'm kind of stuck not being able to burn to my notebook's disc drive. I now realize that I can't buy a song off iTunes, and transfer the file to my other PC and burn from there.

So... all you experts... what are my best options for being able to burn to my notebook? Is it any harder to self-install a new drive (internal) than it is for a desktop system? I've swappped out disc drives in desktops before. ANd if not, do I need to stick with a Dell DVD/CD burner,or are 3rd party brands ok (any reccomendations)?

Finally, would it be easier to just buy an EXTERNAL CD Burner and just hook it up via USB when I need to burn?


Thanks in advance.



Peace

[HiddenIdentity]

I would go for the internal. We bought an external DVD-RW for a laptop, but were never able to get speeds past 2x. This could be because it was on USB 1.1 and it was a slow computer, but I would take things like that into consideration. Plus it's much easier to have an internal always come along with the computer.

AS for installation, I don't think that it would be too difficult, but that depends on your computer. I know for at least one laptop, you press one button and the drive pops out, and you just slide in a new one.

[acsguitar]

Make sure you are on USB 2.0 and get an external one.Then you can use it on whatever computer you want

[j_d_mcnugent]

i am not an ipod owner so i cant be 100% sure, but i think you can use programs like ephpod to transfer the files to your desktop computer using the ipod. apple doesnt want you to use the ipod on different computers, so ditch that software for a third party kind and you shouldnt have that problem anymore.

[acsguitar]

i am not an ipod owner so i cant be 100% sure, but i think you can use programs like ephpod to transfer the files to your desktop computer using the ipod. apple doesnt want you to use the ipod on different computers, so ditch that software for a third party kind and you shouldnt have that problem anymore.

Down with the apple facists!!

[HiddenIdentity]

http://www.ilounge.com will have many of the things you need if your're trying to setup a third party software for your iPod.

[Simulacrum]

I agree- you should burn your Dell laptop.

I can't stand mine. I've had it for over a year and I've had all sorts of trouble with it. Thank God I bought the extended warranty, they've actually been quite good about sending me the parts that keep breaking.

Inspiron 1150, similar to yours.

[Madison]

I agree- you should burn your Dell laptop.

I can't stand mine. I've had it for over a year and I've had all sorts of trouble with it. Thank God I bought the extended warranty, they've actually been quite good about sending me the parts that keep breaking.

Inspiron 1150, similar to yours.

Zero problems here. Dell Latitude X300 has served me well for awhile now.


I don't burn anything on it though, sorry Pacman.

[Pokeyouindaeye]

There are programs out there that allow to transfer songs from ipod to computer. To transfer songs, why don't you add your files to the ipod as a hard drive (as in use the section under my computer) and transfer them that way. I did that for a bunch of my files.

[Pacman]

Yeah, I'm not sure where anyone got the idea I didn't LIKE my Dell notebook. I love it. It's been nothing but great since I owned it. I'm a big Dell fan, I've purchased 3 Dells for myself and my wife over the years, and really had very few problems.

And the only time the burning issue becomes a problem is when I want to burn music I buy from iTunes because, as discussed above, unless you have a 3rd party software program, you can't move iTunes-purchased songs around the same way you can with normal mp3s.

From what I've gathered, a USB 2.0 external CD burner will run between $75 and $100 new (cheaper on eBay), and if I want a new internal burner, I have to go through Dell, and that's up over $200.

I may just look for a 3rd party software program that lets me move songs from my iPod to my other PC, thus enabling burning.

Thanks for advice, guys.