Thinkpads Forum

I need a combo drive that will write to DVD's. Please PM me with details if you have one you would like to sell. Thanks.

Tons of them on eBay.

I doubt anyone here who has one would be of a mind to part with it.

Regards,

James

To be honest with you, I have difficulty in determining which ones will do what I want. It seems that everybody describes the same product different ways...CD/RW, CD/DVD+-RW, etc. I really don't know what all of that stuff means, and it depends on who is selling as to what it really does mean. Seems a lot of people describe it differently, and you end up not knowing what you're getting . This is what I want:
a. I need to be able to read a CD
b. I need to be able to write to a CD
c. I need to be able to read DVD's
d. I need to be able to write to DVD's
In other words, I want to be able to do it all on one drive. If you can help me decypher what all of the jargon means, or better yet, give me a link to one that does all of this, I would surely appreciate it. Thanks.

You should be able to find a drive that does all of that. EVERY drive that writes DVD's that I've read about will also read and write CD's.

The question is whether you need to read the DVD's you write in other drives. Then the issue of DVD+RW versus DVD-RW comes into play.

AFAIK, drives that will write both the + and - formats of DVD's in the laptop form factor are rare. I believe IBM's only write the DVD-R and DVD-RW format.

Many drives that will write one format of DVD will read the other too.

I'm sure someone will correct me.

If you want a Multi Burner (read and write CD/RW's as well as DVD/RW+/- formats...in otherwords it reads and burns them all), and that appears to be what you're really talking about here, I highly recommend the NEC ND-6500A. You can go to www.newegg.com and do a search for it there. Currently their price is the lowest I've found at $120.00. You will have to slightly cut the faceplate so it will fit your Ultrabay2000, but it's not very difficult. In fact, if you get it and don't want to cut the faceplate, I have an extra faceplate I've already done the surgery to I don't mind parting with...you can PM me about it (it looks very good too). The only thing this drive can't do is burn DVD-RAM (used by some people for data back-ups)

If you decide to get this drive, I can also tell you where to go to download a firmware upgrade for it to make it region-free and take off the speed lock (will read and write discs at maximum speeds), as well as make it so it will burn + discs in DVD-ROM format...compatible with every DVD player (in and out of computers) that I've tried.

Good luck in your search.

Thanks, I'll check it out.