Do you use your computer's optical drive anymore?

[slayer202]

I just realized I never use mine anymore. In the "old" days, I'd burn or rip some stuff, and of course use it for games. But now, everything is digital and streaming. Does anyone actually use theirs on a regular basis?

 

[Maleficus]

I do, mostly for ripping though.

 

[n7]

Optical media = extinct.

It's just a matter of time before it's completely unneeded.

 

[MustISO]

Only for burning stuff. I do still use it for OS installs but that's not a regular occurrence.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Rarely. I'll burn the occasional DVD and maybe install games, but that's about it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I hardly use mine either. Only thing I actually use it for is OS/driver reloads. Sometimes someone wants me to burn something for them as well. I used to have lot of friends who wanted me to get music and make them a CD, but that's a thing of the past, everyone has smartphones, mp3 players etc and just get their own music.

Back in the day I used to have a folder labeled "to burn" where I'd put stuff I want to keep like setup files, downloaded drivers etc... anything from the internet that I may need in the future. Setup files is the big one as there's lot of programs out there that go commercial or just fall off the face of the planet, so it's nice to keep the setup files.

Then once a month or so I'd burn a CD with that stuff, code, backups etc. I actually still have some of those old CDs, I should load them up some day for fun as there's probably copies of my first website and stuff. Nostalgia and stuff.

Now that I have a server I just store everything on there. It has raid5 and a decent backup strategy, and even offsite backups. 4.5TB of space with room to add more drives. In fact I'm starting to run low, I only have like 1TB left.

 

[WelshBloke]

My DVDRW broke today, I might get a Blu ray writer to replace it.

 

[Ronstang]

All the time. I am in the process of procuring many older out of print music albums on CD. Once I receive them I immediately rip them to the hard drive in lossless image format and then I convert them to very high quality mp3s. I then turn around and burn as many as a dozen of these mp3 format albums back onto CDs to put in my truck's 6 CD changer. So yes, not only do I use my optical drives quite often I use them very often.

 

[busydude]

I waiting for Blu-Ray drives to drop a bit. I only use mine to install OS.

 

[Ronstang]

I waiting for Blu-Ray drives to drop a bit. I only use mine to install OS.

I doubt they will drop much more. You can find Blu-Ray burners for around $75. That is pretty cheap. And it seems the media is finally dropping as well. Frys has the media on sale all the time for about $.80 a disc.

 

[slayer202]

I'm mildy intrigued by a blu ray drive but I just don't have the need for one. I only need a blu ray player hooked up to my TV and I don't have an HTPC. And I don't pirate movies so I don't need to burn any blu rays, not to mention I would just stream if I did.

The only real need for a drive anymore is to install an OS. Sometimes to back up some files, but that's getting replaced by online storage or flash drives. I know I don't miss using cds and dvds

 

[WelshBloke]

I'm mildy intrigued by a blu ray drive but I just don't have the need for one. I only need a blu ray player hooked up to my TV and I don't have an HTPC. And I don't pirate movies so I don't need to burn any blu rays, not to mention I would just stream if I did.

The only real need for a drive anymore is to install an OS. Sometimes to back up some files, but that's getting replaced by online storage or flash drives. I know I don't miss using cds and dvds

I've got a HD camcorder and it seems a shame to always nerf the quality to make a disc.

 

[manimal]

I stopped buying internals. I use a few externals on all my boxes now. Less wires.

Old people will still need them for their aol 8.0 disks they are saving.

 

[shortylickens]

Less frequently. In fact on my gaming system the DVD drive has been broke for months. No problem, I just play Steam games and I've only got about half-way through them.

 

[IGemini]

Mostly for blu-ray. Internet isn't reliable enough to stream the same quality. I bet burners will stabilize at $50 or lower by year's end.

 

[Imp]

Once every few months...

Get all my games from Steam, don't buy music CDs that often (stick to iTunes now), and don't buy movies as often anymore. I'm actually considering getting all my future "video" needs from iTunes - I am way too lazy to put in/swap DVDs and if I do buy, I buy Blu-rays now, so even more useless.

 

[Jumpem]

Optical media = extinct.

It's just a matter of time before it's completely unneeded.

Negative. I still use it for physical software. At work we use it constantly as well.

 

[Doppel]

Not really.

 

[Imp]

Optical media = extinct.

It's just a matter of time before it's completely unneeded.

Coworker spilled coffee in his bag and fuxxored his laptop temporarily. He needed to do a repair install, but it was a new Asus laptop from the past year that didn't come with a CD drive.

So, opticals are kind of like floppies 10 years ago? Just in case?

 

[WelshBloke]

Coworker spilled coffee in his bag and fuxxored his laptop temporarily. He needed to do a repair install, but it was a new Asus laptop from the past year that didn't come with a CD drive.

So, opticals are kind of like floppies 10 years ago? Just in case?

They can usually boot from USB so I wouldnt bother about not having one in a laptop. I cant see any reason not to have one in a tower though.

 

[MovingTarget]

Yeah, I still use it. It isn't an everyday thing though. Its kinda shortsighted to declare optical media extinct. Heck, many still use floppy drives.

 

[dighn]

once in a long while. almost never. gonna say pretty much no.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

I don't even have one connected to my 2500k or VM server computers.

 

[Bignate603]

On my old laptop I tried to put a DVD into its drive and found that it wouldn't work. I thought back and realized that I couldn't think of a single time I used the drive in over a year. The drive could have been broken for 1 year and I would have never noticed.

 

[irishScott]

All the time. My computer is also my TV/Home Theatre, so my blu-ray drive is my player. I have a solid, ever growing collection of blu-rays, watch them fairly frequently.