Alternatively referred to as a disc drive, optical media, optical storage, Optical disc drive, and optical disk, an optical disc is any media read using a laser assembly. The most common types of optical media are Blu-ray, CDs, and DVDs. Computers can read and write to CDs and DVDs using a CD writer or DVD writer drive, and a Blu-ray is read with a Blu-ray drive. Drives such as a CD-R and DVD-R drive that can read and write information to discs are known as MO (magneto-optic).
There are three main types of optical media: CD, DVD, and Blu-ray disc. CDs can store up to 700 megabytes (MB) of data and DVDs can store up to 8.4 GB of data. Blu-ray discs, which are the newest type of optical media, can store up to 50 GB of data. This storage capacity is a clear advantage over the floppy disk storage media (a magnetic media), which only has a capacity of 1.44 MB. Another advantage that optical media have over the floppy disk is that it can last up to 7 times longer, due to its improved durability.
- Optical drive is refers to an input device that allows the users to use DVD, Cd’s, and BluRay optical drive. It uses laser within or near visible light spectrum as part of process of reading and writing to or from optical disc.
- Optical drive let the user burn CDs or read a disc that contains information or media.
With your Optical drive and data writing software, you can choose to record data on disc for permanent or temporary use. DVDs and CDs contain crystalline alloy that can be melted by the optical drive laser to make the disc rewritable in multiple times. However, in case you delete your DVD, CD or Blu-ray discs by accident; you cannot recover your files back with any optical drive data recovery software.
CD-ROM (use to READ-ONLY discs) , CD-RW (use to rewrite, read, or erase data from disc), DVD-ROM (use for reading Large software applications), DVD-RW (used for storing backups or collections), and Blu-ray drives (use for reading and storing Larger files than DVD can contain). Some common types of optical drives include CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and Blu-ray drives. CD and DVD writers, such as CD-R and DVD-R drives use a laser to both read and write data on the discs. The laser used for writing the data is much more powerful than the laser that reads the data, as it "burns" the bumps and dips into the disc. While optical drives can spin discs at very high speeds, they are still significantly slower than hard drives, which store data magnetically. However, because optical media is inexpensive and removable, it is the most common format used for distributing computer software.
Microsoft Windows users can determine what CD drive is currently installed in their computer by following the steps below.
Most optical drives are backward compatible with their ancestors up to CD, although this is not required by standards. Compared to a CD's 1.2 mm layer of polycarbonate, a DVD's laser beam only has to penetrate 0.6 mm in order to reach the recording surface. This allows a DVD drive to focus the beam on a smaller spot size and to read smaller pits. DVD lens supports a different focus for CD or DVD media with same laser. With the newer Blu-ray disc drives, the laser only has to penetrate 0.1 mm of material. Thus the optical assembly would normally have to have an even greater focus range. In practice, the Blu-ray optical system is separate from the DVD/CD system.
Both DVDs and CDs have been known to explode when damaged or spun at excessive speed. This imposes a constraint on the maximum speed (56× for CDs or around 18× in the case of DVDs) at which drives can operate.