Using optical discs

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

Your optical drive can read standard CD and DVD discs. If your optical drive is a Blu-ray Disc ROM Drive, it can also read Blu-ray discs.

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.

Some optical drives can also write to optical discs as described in the following table.

Optical drive type

Write to CD-RW

Write to

Write to DVD+R

Write label to

Write to HD DVD

 

 

DVD±RW/R

DL

LightScribe CD or

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±RW/R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±RW/R and

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

CD-RW Combo

 

 

 

 

 

Drive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±RW/R and

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

CD-RW Combo

 

 

 

 

 

Drive with DL

 

 

 

 

 

support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HD DVD-R Drive

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

with SuperMulti

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±R/RW DL

 

 

 

 

 

support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HD DVD-ROM

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Drive with

 

 

 

 

 

SuperMulti

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±R/RW DL

 

 

 

 

 

support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LightScribe

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

DVD±RW/R and

 

 

 

 

 

CD-RW Combo

 

 

 

 

 

Drive with DL

 

 

 

 

 

support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Disc ROM

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Drive with

 

 

 

 

 

SuperMulti

 

 

 

 

 

DVD±R/RW DL

 

 

 

 

 

support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAUTION: To prevent possible audio and video degradation, loss of information, 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.

16 Chapter 5 Optical drive