if youll have only 1 drive (a dvd burner that is) youll still be able to copy existing dvds/cds, for cds youll have to copy to hard drive or make a disc image before you burn and for dvds youll need to rip em first , if youll have another drive then youll be able to copy from cd to an empty cd on the burner (drive to drive) but the dvd part wont change youll still have to rip em , anyway its better to make disc images/copy to hd cuz when burning from drive to drive theres always a risk that the burn will fail , so you can get along just fine with 1 drive but its a good idea to buy a dvd-rom for reading/ripping dvds/cds as the burner will likely last longer that way , liteon dvd-roms are very fast rippers