Laptop CD drive and laptop DVD drive and all other pluses and minuses around

When you think about it, you have a lot of pluses and minuses when it comes to CD and DVD formats. CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD±RW ! Well, a regular laptop user may be a bit confused. What should you chose for your laptop? Let’s get into details:

CD - a drive that can read CD-ROMs and music CDs
CD-R – this drive has all the features of the previous one , plus the ability to “burn”, or write CD-ROMs and music CDs. From this point of view it comes handy in some cases when you need to write a CD on your laptop
CD-RW – well, these drives has the possibility to write and rewrite rewritable CDs, so it has all the features of the previous one plus this particular one
DVD – it is similar to CD just that it reads DVD-ROMs and DVD movies. It also reads CD-ROMs and CD music
DVD-R - has all the features of a DVD drive, can also burn CDs, CR-ROMs, DVDs and DVD-ROMs
DVD-RW - one of two competing drive technologies that has all the features of a DVD-R drive; can also burn rewritable DVD-based discs
DVD+RW - the other of two competing drive technologies that has all the features of a DVD-R drive; can also burn rewritable DVD-based discs
DVD±RW - utilizes both DVD-RW and DVD+RW technologies so you can burn either format.

I know that a lot of people may find that scary but actually, go with a CD-RW/DVD drive, it may be the best choice for your laptop computer.

A CD or DVD drive may come very handy when you need to install software on your computer, watch a movie, backup your harddisk on CDs or DVDs.

An other thing that you need to take care of is the speed. While in many cases the fastest the better, in some situations, writing CDs for example at high speeds may cause some problems with older CD drives that can not read well high speed written CDs.