DVD copy program

Does anyone know of a freeware version for copying dvd. I want to get some programs my dad has recorded, but I don't know what a good program would be. And he has a cd writer drive, will that copy dvd. He has a HP Pavillion 564w.

 

No. You must have a DVDRW drive (also called a DVD burner or DVD writer). A CD writer will only read & write CDs, not DVDs. The DVDRW will read and write all discs, both CDs and DVDs. New DVDRW drives have dropped in price over the past few months; a new burner shouldn't be more than $50 or $60 at any PC store. I've seen 'em as low as $35 on sale. Be sure you get one with an interface that your PC supports; many new DVDRW drives have the SATA interface and your PC may not have a SATA controller, so check with the manufacturer, or buy an IDE (or ATA or PATA) drive as it will definitely work with your PC.
When copying DVDs, if you only have one drive capable of reading/writing DVDs, you must first copy everything from the disc you want to copy (the "source") to the computer's hard drive. Then you'd remove the source DVD, and put a blank DVD-R (the "target") in the drive and burn the data that is now on the PC to the blank DVD. If you have a DVDRW drive and a 2nd drive that is capable of reading DVDs (like a DVDROM or a CDRW/DVDROM combo) you can skip the step of copying everything to the PC, and you can copy straight from the source drive to the target drive which saves a lot of time. Any program that is capable of burning DVDs will work. Here's a few free ones:
AShampoo Burning Studio 6 http://majorgeeks.com/Ashampoo_Burning_Studio_6_FREE_d5937.html (my personal favorite free burning program)
BurnAware http://majorgeeks.com/BurnAware_Free_Edition_d5839.html
CDBurnerXP (requires .NET Framework 2.0 or newer) http://majorgeeks.com/CDBurnerXP_d4242.html (works with all Windows, not just XP)
StarBurn http://majorgeeks.com/StarBurn_d5936.html (be sure to read the 'Limitations' at the bottom of the description to avoid any surprises)

I hope this helps. Good luck!