I've got to get a DVD drive

[Steel God]

I'm about as technical as you are Mick, so perhaps you'll find it comforting to know that I have swapped out CD and DVD drives dozens of times on my PCs.

Yes, it's as simple as opening the case, unpluging the old and plugging in the new, might have to loosen 2 screws along the way. I've heard there are some that are not plug and play, but in my experience if you're buying from any reputable source you've no worries it will recognize the new drive when you're boot up and then you're good to go.

As for what to get, a read only or read-write, if you're not planning on burning DVDs I would suggest the read only. Unless I'm wrong, which I could easily be (see first sentence of post ;) ) what you're talking about doing (saving pictures) you'd do with a CD burner not a DVD burner. I think they're different.

In my house the PC I use has a CD burner, and the missus has teh DVD burner, so I honestly don't think you can do both with a DVD burner.