I have Sony vaio laptop with windows XP and DVD/CD-RW drive as standard. I want to back up all my photos etc onto DVD disk but understand that windows XP does not support DVD burning.

can i use my existing (standard) hardware to burn data onto DVD if i simply download the right software or will i need to get a seperate dvd burner?

can you advise good version of software? - it doesnt need to be flash, just do the job, i wont be burning movies or anything like that.

I have Sony vaio laptop with windows XP and DVD/CD-RW drive as standard. I want to back up all my photos etc onto DVD disk but understand that windows XP does not support DVD burning.

windows xp does support DVD burning, if you already have a DVD RW, just plug it in and install the drivers, you could use a program like nero or drag and drop files using windows explorer, then click "burn these files to cd/dvd"

can i use my existing (standard) hardware to burn data onto DVD if i simply download the right software or will i need to get a seperate dvd burner?

if your talking about the hardware that is included with your laptop, you will need to get a seperate dvd rw

or you could copy them to cd using your existing hardware (you can fit up to 700mb on a normal CD-R/CD-RW

thanks,

so DVD/CD-RW means that it will read DVDs but can only burn CDs?

yes, i got confused with this when i was buying my pc, i got the impression that i could copy dvd's but that just means DVD reader and CD-RW

you can buy external DVD-RW's that just plug into your usb port

thanks

im off down the shops!