Yeah you can definately get an external DVD writer/re-writer and connect it to your USB port. It depends on how old his laptop is really. If he has USB 1 ports instead of USB 2 then the drive might not read/write as fast as it may do through a USB 2 port. If he knows what he's doing when it comes to hardware, then he could install an internal one. However I've never done this, and I'm not sure if they cost more or less than external drives.