I have a Samsung ts-h552 which I purchased late 2005. It has began
final meltdown mode. It started causing complete lockups in XP, then
it got to the point that the system wouldn't post with it plugged
in.

I have it plugged in as an external drive USB connected so that when
it has IO errors, they don't lock up the computer. So I am in the
market for a new DVD Burner. Since this is the 3rd time I've had an
optical drive fail (in many years) and each time they fail they cause
system instability, I plan to go with an external drive which isolates
those problems.

The problem I am having is finding one that says it supports Vista.
While I don't have Vista now, I don't want to purchase a DVD burner
and then turn around and re-purchase another 6 months later. So far I
have only found the Sony DRX models which state Vista support.

Is there a list, or are there just not many Vista ready external
burners out there yet? For example, I don't want a burner that comes
bundled with software which ONLY works with XP.

Thanks!