external usb 3.0 dvd drive vs internal sata

[pembquist]

Upgraded my dinosaur with a new to me MOBO CPU RAM combo I bought from Reschke and it is like going from hand painted slides to Omnimax. The deal is I only have the old DVD Drive which is a GCC-H10N and it isn't installing right on windows 10. It shows up in device manager but not in the file explorer. However it did show up in file explorer briefly after I tickled it with device manager. Googling for a new driver brings nothing particularly windows 10. I am thinking the path of least resistance is a new drive so let me ask:

1.) How can you trust drivers downloaded from download sites to begin with?
2.) Is there a difference in speed (in the real world) between using an external USB 3.0 drive vs an internal Sata drive?
3.) Is there any problem installing software from an external drive vs internal? I just want to install 3 old programs: X-Plane 9, FSX Deluxe, Condor sailplane simulator.
4.) Anybody have a drive they would recommend?

Thanks

[Denniss]

You should no need a driver. Isn't there a windoze default setting to hide optical drives in file explorer if there's no medium in it ?

[Bizman]

As Denniss said, you should not need a driver for an optical device. If the Device Manager says it's there and has no exclamation marks over it, it is installed properly.

I've encountered the issue about it not showing in the File Explorer. If my memory serves me, it will show once you put a disk in.

To answer #1: The driver update sites and programs are very untrustworthy. Only download drivers from the manufacturer's site.
#2 & 3: For installing an external drive is just as fine as an internal. If a game constantly loads video clips etc. during playing the game, USB2 may be too slow, USB3 should be fast enough even for that.