advice regarding types of disc drives

hi all,i have dropped my laptop and my insurance are going to pay towards a new one for me,i am a complete dunce regarding computers and i need advice before i go to the shop to buy a new laptop(i would buy the wrong thing else).my question is what kind of disc drive would i need to be able to save images and music to disc?a cd rewriter or a dvd rewriter?hope that makes sense

Both will do what you want but then if you want to make DVD's then you'll need a DVD rewriter the latest format is dual layer that means that you can get about 8 gigs of info on each disk as apposed to 4.7 with a single layer DVD rewriter but it has to be a dual layer disk you can not use a single layer and try to put on over 4 gigs of info.

With a DVD rewriter you'll be able to make back up copies of DVD disks from the hire shop with the right sort of software but this of course is illegal and must not be done unless you have permission from the copywrite holder .

thanks leo i will just get a cd rewriter then,i am not too bothered about dvds and of course i wouldn't copy one without permission