My DVD Writer died :(

My DVD Writer for my PC just died the other night as I was trying to burn something. What a bummer! Now I have to spend money to get another one. Just in case there was a fix I emailed tech support at IO Magic and explained what was wrong. The thing doesn't even read the discs anymore, Windows recognizes that there is a drive but it won't read the media. I even cracked the thing open to see if there were any problems with the parts inside but it all looks OK to me (obviously I didn't put that in my email to IO Magic). I have a Best Buy card coming in the mail so I'll end up using all the money I have on it for my new burner, now my dilemma is whether or not to get an external one or an internal one.....................