I received a question from a customer this week that I felt I should discuss in a more general sense. I helped a couple recover their pictures, videos, and other files off of a dying hard drive and put it onto DVDs for them. They purchased a new computer when it was on sale, but then they discovered that it did not have a CD/DVD drive on it. They came to me to ask what they could do to get their files off of the DVDs and onto their new computer.
The answer that I gave them is true not only for DVD players, but also for many types of devices. I recommended an external DVD drive that I found on sale for $25. This drive will plug into a USB port and provide them with a drive when they need it.
This solution works if you need to add many different types of functions to your computer. If your new laptop doesn't come with a port for a network cable and you want one, you can get a network port that plugs into a USB port. This also comes in handy to replace a port on your computer that has failed. If the wireless card in a laptop fails, you would be unable to connect to any WiFi. However, you can find WiFi devices that plug into your USB ports for less than $5.
The key to remember: your computer isn't dead just because one port died or because it doesn't have a capability you want. Almost every device that you can have built into your computer also comes in an external version at a reasonable price.
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