What is an Optical Drive? An optical drive is a generic term
used for DVD, CD & Blu-Ray drives. There are other drives
available for legacy standards such as HD-DVD and karaoke disks
although it is not recommended to invest in these standards
unless you already have a large collection of media. Thankfully
optical drives are one of the easier purchases you can make for
your PC. There are only two standards for connecting an internal
drive and only three major formats available today making it
easy to get the drive you want. What types of disk are there?
There are three major formats of disk available: - CD-ROM: An
older standard that is used primarily for Audio and smaller data
transfers. Has a capacity of up to 700MB - DVD-ROM: The main
standard used by PCs today. With a capacity of between 4.7GB and
8.5GB it offers enough storage for the vast majority or games
and applications. Dual-layer (8.5GB) DVD is the standard used by
the movie industry. - Blu-Ray: Represents a new generation of
optical media with capa