Situation: You’ve decided that you’re going to build a new computer. You put your part list together (case, mainboard, RAM, hard drive, processor, etc.) and then come to the point where you have to purchase an optical drive. Seems like a waste of money, doesn’t it? On the Linux side of things, it has been proven that you can install a full...

You may have a disc, be it music or data, that is scratched and will not read in your optical disc drive no matter what you do to it. Can it be saved? Possibly. There are a few things you can try to save that disc. Hardware method: It could be just the drive you’re using If the disc won’t read in your optical drive, try another one that’s...

Situation: You’ve carefully backed up some sensitive data to CD or DVD. Afterwards you took the extra step of placing the disc in a standard jewel case instead of a fold-out case. You even took the extra precaution of putting the disc in that case in a room where the ambient temperature is never too cold or too hot. Less than one year later you open that...

Have you ever wanted to convert your DVD library to files you can play on your computer, but don’t want to worry about having to find the right program? If so, make sure to give HandBrake a download. HandBrake is an open source program which converts DVD videos to MPEG-4 files (among other formats such as AVI). HandBrake works on Windows, Linux and Mac so...