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Do You Ever Use the Optical Drive

N

NewYorksFinest

Senior member
I do! I have a large collection of blu-ray DVDs that I will start to play on my new computer. I also use it for running software like Hoyle Games or Mocroslft Office 2013 (when I get it with my new PC.) I ise it about once every two days. What about you?
 
I've got a daughter and I buy or borrow BRs and DVDs all the time. Amazon, Netflix (streaming) and Hulu don't cover it all as yet, not to mention my girlfriend is hard of hearing and SDH is a must and again, some of the media don't have SDH.
 
Only time I use it is for other people. "Can you burn this for me, can you rip this cd for me" stuff like that. Honestly I'd be better off taking it out so I can just tell people I don't have one. 😛 Same with my printer, I use it more for other people than for myself.

For installing OSes, I have a neat little drive that lets me emulate an ISO as a USB cdrom drive. It works on most modern computers that support USB boot. On older computers I end up having to plug in an IDE drive. Though thankfully I don't have to deal with computers that old much anymore.
 
I primarily use blurays for off-site backup, so yes, it gets a fair amount of usage.

The one in my HTPC gets used quite frequently too.
 
Few days ago I scored a bunch of blank BRs cheap because I guess not many people use them. I sure don't.

I have burnt twice (on an old DVD-RW) with my 6 month old burner because I loose flash drives. Still happy I have the burner.
 
Yes. I have one or more on each of 4 computers. Ifrequently retrieve data and photos stored on optical disks. Also, all my movies are on opticals, but I rarely watch movies.

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Yes, all the time. as movies constantly are pouring into the public libraries. In fact, was able to grab "Gravity" off the new movies features stand a week or so ago.

In general, Im not real keen on optical stuff cause it is slow and I consider it to be cantankerous, but till further notice, it is essential & I wouldnt get a notebook that does not have one (ie, optical format drive).
 
I have a shoebox with 4 DVD burners/players in it.

Once I bought a USB DVD burner/drive, it takes care of the 3 times a year I need optical media.
 
My laptop doesn't have one anymore. I use an Ultrabay HDD caddy. Also, my wife's machine doesn't have one. The HTPC sees a lot of ODD use, and that's where she will put a disc and browse to it on the network when necessary (twice a year or so).
 
Quite often, usually for CDs. When the rights-holders start offering the same content cheaper than CDs, I'll think about getting rid of it.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Only time I use it is for other people. "Can you burn this for me, can you rip this cd for me" stuff like that.
Click to expand...

This.

Only that I use it for this purpose some of the time Not all the time.

I also use it this way.

corkyg said:
Yes. I have one or more on each of 4 computers. Ifrequently retrieve data and photos stored on optical disks. Also, all my movies are on opticals, but I rarely watch movies..
Click to expand...

I am not the type that is full of anxieties to be Cool.

So I am Not going to spend money and time transferring Archived stuff from DVD/CDs to HD and flash drive because they are Now inexpensive.



😎
 
Yes, though rarely. I tend to rip&transcode every bluray disk I buy because PC bluray software is universally shitty. 95% of my software is installed through the Internet in some way.

Still, I do have a large library of older CD and DVD games, and I wouldn't be entirely comfortable dropping the optical drive entirely just yet. Could probably get by with an external USB drive though. Perhaps I'll just carry my current optical drive over to the next build until it fails.
 
Yes, I use mine all the time. Currently have two Blu-ray drives in my computers, used for ripping and burning movies mostly. I play Blu-ray movies from hard drives in my HTPC, never from the optical drive.

And I keep a couple of DVD-burners installed as well, that I use occasionally for burning DVD's. Saves a little wear and tear on the more expensive Blu-ray drives.
 
I don't know if it's fear of having one, is it? It's just that they are starting to seem obsolete. I can't remember exactly when I stopped speccing floppy drives in builds, seems like a long time ago. But they were still needed for a few things, like BIOS updates, and the workarounds seemed like a pain. Optical drives are nearing the same situation, imo, not necessary for most users most of the time, but when you need one, you need one.
 
On my personal rig, I use it about once a week or so for a live drive imaging program.

Infrequently, I've used various live linux optical media to troubleshoot problems, recover data, etc.
 
Once in a while I watch a movie or need it for an operating system disk or some odd reason. I am seriously considering removing it and getting an external Optical Drive.
 
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