3 Using an optical drive

An optical drive, such as a DVD-ROM drive, supports optical discs (CDs and DVDs). These discs store or transport information and play music and movies. DVDs have a higher storage capacity than CDs.

Optical drives can read from and select models can write to optical media as described in the following table.

Optical drive

Read CD and

Write to CD-

Write to DVD

Write to DVD

Write label to

Write to DVD-

type

DVD-ROM

RW media

±RW/R media

+RW DL media

LightScribe

RAM media

 

media

 

 

 

CD or DVD

 

 

 

 

 

 

±RW/R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±RW and

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

CD-RW

 

 

 

 

 

 

SuperMulti

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double-Layer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combo Drive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±RW and

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

CD-RW

 

 

 

 

 

 

SuperMulti

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double-Layer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Combo Drive

 

 

 

 

 

 

with

 

 

 

 

 

 

LightScribe

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: Some of the optical drives listed may not be supported by your computer. The listed drives are not necessarily all of the supported optical drives.

CAUTION: To prevent possible audio and video degradation, or loss of audio or video playback functionality, do not initiate Sleep or Hibernation while reading or writing to a CD or DVD.

To prevent loss of information, do not initiate Sleep or Hibernation when writing to a CD or DVD.

If Sleep or Hibernation is initiated during playback of drive media, you may experience the following behaviors:

●Your playback may be interrupted.

●You may see a warning message asking if you want to continue. If this message is displayed, click No.

●You may need to restart the CD or DVD to resume audio and video playback.

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