Aussie Frugal Living

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Consider buying an external optical drive (self.frugal)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by melbaboutown to c/frugal

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Title. I’m still trying to get mine to work but in theory owning one of these will allow you to use a computer without a cd drive to play or rip cds, play dvds, and burn backup cds of your music.

Obviously it’s better to have a computer with a cd drive but this creates options if you don’t. Pairs nicely with secondhand cds and dvds from the op shop. Look for these usb drives on eBay and at Officeworks.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Also see if you can find one with a firmware that supports libredrive, for uh, reasons.

[–] The_Decryptor 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They're super useful, and it's easy to get a US model in case you come across region locked blu-ray disks

[–] smegger 1 points 1 month ago

It was pretty easy back in the day to disable region locks on drives, I imagine it's still just as easy if they even still bother to lock them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

i have a super cheep "external drive" connector for internal drives. I have used it to take data off my old optical media and old drives, it was bought before m.2 was a thing but it supports sata and ide. Saved me buying a new drive as I have a stack of old drives that work. Looks something like this

[–] No1 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I have an external usb optical, but think it's only cd/dvd rw.

Any thoughts or recommendations about bluray drives? Read and/or write? Region issues etc? Works with Linux and Windows? Preferably driver free?

[–] melbaboutown 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I have no idea, I’m on Windows and still struggling to get this cheap eBay model working with the computer. (Some driver issue, Code 43.) It’s not letting me watch my secondhand dvds of Buffy.

But all of those are fantastic questions