Burning DVd's on an old Sony laptop!

[Basilbenz]

I have an old laptop (sony PCG-F430 ) which has a dvd drive that can read DVD's but cannot write on it. I was wondering if someone can tell me as to what would be the cheapest yet effective way to enable the laptop to burn DVD's??

My understanding is that either i have to change the dvd drive and get another one that can write too.The only problem with this one is that it is too expensive.I mean spending more than 350 $ just for that sounds stupid.

The other option is to get an external dvd drive. If this is a good option then can someone tell me more about it? and also the models i should be looking for?

thanks

[lumis]

if you've got usb 2.0 or firewire ports, then buy your own enclosure & buy a good internal drive.. if you dont have the ports, then get a card that will do the job, and get an enclosure and a good dvd burner..

i suggest the pioneer a09

[Basilbenz]

Are you talking about Pioneer external dvd burner??

thanks

[kato51]

I think this is a P3-450 with USB 1.0 ports so external USB DVD burner maybe very iffy. Best to try one on it before buying one unless you have other uses for a USB burner.

[redwudz]

If your laptop has a PCMCIA slot, then go for a external Firewire PCMCIA card and a external Firewire drive box and DVD burner. A USB 2.0 PCMCIA card will work also, but Firewire is generally easier, faster and has less problems. If you don't have PCMCIA, no easy options. The USB 1.0 interface will be way too slow to do much good.

I didn't see your operating system mentioned. XP is easy, but may be too much for your laptop. Windows 2000 works well with less memory, HD space and CPU speed. If you have W98, it will still work, just a little more complicated to set up. As long as you don't expect high speed, it should work.

I wouldn't try to replace the internal DVD, too expensive. But if you can read with the internal and burn with the external, should be fine.

[ZippyP.]

USB 1.0 will take an hour to burn a DVD (1X)...been there, done that.