Sometimes I talk about hardware that is really cool. Other times it is quite frivolous. Today I’m going to talk about something rather pedestrian, yet something very important.

First off, do you have a DVD drive in your computer? Look at the thing where you insert the shiny discs and see if you see a DVD logo on it. The reason I bring this up is because there are users who don’t have a DVD drive and they are becoming increasingly important. CorelDRAW X4 was only supplied on DVD. Ditto for Adobe’s latest couple of versions. Nearly all of the disc-based products from Unleashed are on a DVD. I bring this up because occasionally a customer will call with trouble reading our discs. The problem turns out that they only have a CD-ROM drive.

The drives aren’t expensive. The Samsung SH-S222 that I recommend is less than $40. If you are even a little bit handy with a screwdriver, you should be able to install it yourself. For those intimidated with installing it, find a geek friend to do it for you. Not only would replacing the CD-ROM drive allow you to read DVDs, you will probably also be upgrading to a much faster drive. It may also be that the upgrade is worthwhile for those who already have a DVD drive to get a fresh drive and/or faster speeds.

All I can tell you is that more and more software will be shipped on DVD-ROM discs so it is something you really need to get in your computer sooner rather than later.