Is it possible that there are no CD-RW's for my comp?

[boredbody]

Hello!

Recently I realised I need a way to copy media off my computer so the logical choice was to call up a local computer store and ask about CD burners, the guy got all huffy with me and spent a long time talking about how because my laptop is 7 years old, only has a pentium 3, 200 some MB of Ram, and one GB of freespace on the harddrive(it's a gateway), doesn't have a 2.0 usb has the older type -  that there aren't any CD burners in existence compatible and I was wasting my and his time trying to buy anything for the, "old piece of junk" - I'm inclined to believe him just because I know how quickly things evolve with computers but I'm shocked that my laptop is basically dead in the water if what this guy says is true - the reason he gave is because CD burners weren't that popular 6 or 7 years ago there just aren't any available that would work with my comp.

Is it true?

[michaewlewis]

tell us what the model is and we'll check if it is too old.

[boredbody]

It's a gateway solo 5300

[michaewlewis]

If you take the current cd-rom drive or floppy drive out of the laptop, what does the connector look like? Is it located in the middle on the back, or on the side?
New cd/dvd drives have them on the side, like this: http://tinyurl.com/5nff6w
If it looks like that, then you can put a new drive in there. If not, you'll have to do more searching.

[elxr06]

if you have a USB port on your gateway, then you can just get an external CD-RW like the LaCie CD-RW 52X/24X/52X USB which you can just connect thru your usb port without having to take any cd-rom or floppy drive out.

Just get the right drivers for your CD-RW if your operating system doesn't detect it automatically.

[boredbody]

Thanks, I didn't mention... I was looking for a USB drive, but I guess it actually might be better to have an onboard drive - I didn't even think of that as a possibility.

So, my main question that remains is this:

I know that the USB port on the laptop comp doesn't have the fastest USB connect, I've gotten digital cameras, an Ipod, among other things that say their minimum specs are "for USB 2.0 Only" they just give me funny little popups about it and work a little slower - will the same be true of a CD-RW drive?

[julianmh]

I know that the USB port on the laptop comp doesn't have the fastest USB connect, I've gotten digital cameras, an Ipod, among other things that say their minimum specs are "for USB 2.0 Only" they just give me funny little popups about it and work a little slower - will the same be true of a CD-RW drive?

It could be a problem. If you do get a USB CD-RW drive, get the fastest one ypou can get, and set the burning speed much below the max, to make sure that you don't get data corruption.

[michaewlewis]

even if cd-rw drives aren't backward compatible (which they probably are) you could get a usb 2.0 pcmcia card and plug it into that.

[elxr06]

even if cd-rw drives aren't backward compatible (which they probably are) you could get a usb 2.0 pcmcia card and plug it into that.

Yes, older usb apps work with usb 2.0 drives, usb 2.0 apps work with older drives. It will be that you will have slower read/write speeds. that is all..... this applies for cd-rw's as well.

and onboard cd-rw drive might be better idea if the drive is hardly going to be removed from the computer.

[michaewlewis]

If you already have a cd or dvd burner (in another computer) you can buy a ide to usb converter on newegg for half the price of an external drive

[boredbody]

If you already have a cd or dvd burner (in another computer) you can buy a ide to usb converter on newegg for half the price of an external drive

Thank you, everything so far has been really helpful. This is my first foray into CD burning so I don't but the above is another great idea I wouldn't have thought of, I could get a cheaper IDE drive for my desktop and with the converter cable use it on the laptop as well! Brilliant, thanks so much.