I'm new to the world of DVD Burners and am considering buying a Pioneer A04 for my Sony Vaio system. However, looking inside it may be really difficult to change a drive in this locked down system(or I may not have the patience). Wondering if I bought a Firewire enclosure if I could use this drive via the firewire port???? Anyone know this?
thanks!

I do it now with the A03. You just have to make sure you get a decent enclosure drive. Some people have had problems with cheap ones. The Pyro enclusures that you can get at Compusa are recommended.

I have a Skymaster which is a bit cheaper than the pyro and it works great...looks good to.

What is a firewire enclosure? I also have a sony vaio system.. luckily it came with a pioneer dvr 103 (same as a03) ... i was told you have to buy any extra drives you want from sony.... very expensive... is the "firewire" enclosure a way to get around this?

A firewire enclosure is a case that the Pioneer A03(Or any other 5 1/4 or 3 1/2" device for that matter), fits into. It has a firewire connector on the back that connects to a firewire port on your PC. it bascially allows you to carry your device and plug it into other firewire capable pc's/laptops. check http://www.skymaster.com.tw/products/sky-storage/storage-1394.htm for pictures of it..very handy and some say more reliable than having the unit conencted internally. Also allows you to switch off the unit when not in use.