1. CD and DVD Media Optical Drives

2. Definitions CD-ROM – Compact Disk, Read Only Media/Memory DVD – Digital Versatile/Video Disk

3. How it lays out This time the data is INSIDE the disk: Data Location Label, or not Laser 10

4. ISO 9660 Also called: High Sierra for the hotel in Colorado where standard got developed Joliet – Microsoft’s extension(s); Mac and Linux support these also. Rock Ridge – UNIX file system support El Torito – Bootable CD media Apple Extensions – Apple’s HFS file system

5. CD Speed 1x : Original (and still) audio standard: 150,000Bps or 150KBps 4x : 600KBps 24x : The “magic line” –Below this drives and connections were proprietary – and often to sound card –These drives were single speed – always on At and above 24x –Variable speed – spin up, read, spin down –Uniform connection method (ATAPI-6)

6. To Burn a CD Second, more powerful laser (10x read) Two CD-R formats: 72-minute (650 MB) and 80-minute (700 MB) Burns organic dye to create pits (0’s) Need burning software below XP CD-R is write once, read many CD-RW is write often, read often (can be erased) Speeds are ; 16x10x40x for mine

7. UDF Universal Data Format, replacement for 9660 Vista supports this but not XP Supports packet writing Roxio’s DirectCD and Nero’s InCD allow disk to feel like a hard/floppy disk

8. DVD Big step up in capacity: 4.37 GB Smaller pits, more dense than CD Single-sided or double-sided Single layer or double layer You need decoder (MPEG-2) to watch movies on your PC – most DVD drives ship with them DVD+R, -R, +RW and –RW

9. Installation Master or Slave Ribbon (data) cable Sound cable (optional) Power You can still find SCSI drives and we are likely to see SATA versions

10. Buffer Underrun Fortunately, it is a thing of the past (16x burn rate and slower drives) No, you don’t see a spec on the buffer size on the drive’s box BURN-Proof seems to be the maiden name for underrun protection

11. Troubleshooting I have had zero luck with trying to clean an optical drive to get it functioning again Sometimes it’s a compatibility issue… but rare today Replace the drive