Optical drives are still practical for many users, whether to play old CDs and DVDs, install software, or create backups—especially with modern laptops, which are usually supplied without a drive.

Optical drives no longer come pre-installed in most PCs and laptops, yet they’re still indispensable for many users. Whether for playing old DVDs, installing ancient software from CDs, or burning data ...

You have it way easier these days, but back in the day, when you wanted to play a game on your PC, you had to take a similar ...

It’s impossible to beat CD-R media in terms of cost or compatibility for backing up important files; freeing up hard drive space; and burning all your favorite tunes to a perfect mixed CD for a friend ...

My Uncle is looking to buy an external zip drive for his laptop. I suggested he look into a CDRW. I don't know much about zip drives, but CDRWs seem more useful. His work uses all zip drives, but he ...

Apple has finally started putting internal CD-RW drives in its new systems, but that’s of little comfort to those who own earlier Macs. If you long for the unlimited capacity, quick file sharing, and ...

Most optical drives today are combo CD/DVD drives that support DVDs and all the CD formats: CD audio, CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW. The speeds of the drives are rated by their CD-ROM and DVD transfer rates.

Do combo movie-watching and music-recording drives have the write stuff? Apparently PC manufacturers think so. After a slow start, combination CD-rewritable and DVD drives are showing up in computers ...

A CD-ROM drive can be used as a stand-alone unit for playing digital audio CDs without interfacing with a computer. The stereo output of CD player available at the audio jack can be amplified using ...

When something goes wrong with your Mac, it's a boon to have a separate, external drive that you can work from — but Apple no longer makes that easy. Here's how to do it. The short answer to how you ...