Do you use your computer's optical drive anymore?

[lothar]

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

Mostly this. I wouldn't pay more than $30-40 for a Blu-Ray burner. I'm willing to wait 5 more years if I have to. Even if I got it, there's no proof that I'd actually end up using it.
Flash drive, cloud, DropBox, STEAM, Battle.net, email, wireless network, streaming, and many other sources are still available for me to use.

I'm still using my BenQ DW1620 IDE drive from Spring 2005. I refuse to upgrade because most of the DVD drives compared to it today are crap(and no, I'm not talking about comparing "burn speed"). If I can find a black BenQ DW1640 SATA drive for cheap that still works and isn't all beat up from a reliable seller, that will be my ultimate dream.

In my new system since Fall 2009, I can count on one hand how many times I've used my BenQ DW1620:
1.) Used to install Windows 7.
2.) Used to burn an African music CD my mom wanted to give to her friend.
3.) See #2, only this time a different artist and album Disk 1.
4.) Same artist and album as #3, Disk 2.

 

[lothar]

You need to have a floppy drive to perform their diagnostic tests. /facepalm

Are you talking about SSD's or optical drives?
How do they expect one to do this when Intel has gotten rid of the Floppy connector on motherboards?

 

[Dominato3r]

Dare I ask... howTF is Apple killing optical?

The mass adoption of Macs is causing people to think differently about optical drives.

 

[Jumpem]

The mass adoption of Macs is causing people to think differently about optical drives.

Mass adoption as in one out of twenty?

 

[busydude]

Are you talking about SSD's or optical drives?
How do they expect one to do this when Intel has gotten rid of the Floppy connector on motherboards?

Oops. Didn't mention the main part lol.

It is Samsung HDDs.

 

[Exterous]

Not much anymore. In fact I was thinking about starting a thread about this on Friday when I had to install Turbotax. I've been using an IDE burner for years and when I upgraded my motherboard I forgot to buy a sata drive. A couple of days later I bought one and it sat around for about 3 months until I needed to install turbotax

Used one today to install Turbotax. And need to burn a CD to update my SSD's firmware.

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

If I ever get a car stereo that has an aux imput I pretty much wont need to burn anything either

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

The last 4 games I've bought have been downloads so I haven't even needed it for that

Downloading it from "somewhere" is illegal.

You can get downloaded OS versions from MS

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I'm still using my BenQ DW1620 IDE drive from Spring 2005. I refuse to upgrade because most of the DVD drives compared to it today are crap(and no, I'm not talking about comparing "burn speed"). If I can find a black BenQ DW1640 SATA drive for cheap that still works and isn't all beat up from a reliable seller, that will be my ultimate dream.

Another die-hard BenQ fan eh?
I've still got a DW1620, DW1625 (cross-flashed Phillips), DW1640 and DW1650 running in my systems.

 

[JimmiG]

I bought Skyrim boxed because it was cheaper than Steam. I also ended up actually installing it from the disc rather than just entering the serial and getting it from Steam, because Steam was extremely slow on the release day.

Other than that, I rarely use it. Last time I re-installed Windows, I actually used a USB stick.


DVD-R's have too low a capacity to be useful any more, and BD-R is too expensive per GB. Flash drives and external hard drives as well as cloud-based storage have replaced those for me.

 

[jones377]

When the relic server goes down, Company of Heroes wants the disc to complete the login. That's pretty much been the only times I use the optical drive the past 3 years.

edit: since that happens quite often I am not sure which poll option to use

 

[mugs]

My computer doesn't have an optical drive. Hasn't been a problem so far.

 

[TridenT]

Almost never.

Only time is when I need it for a game (I don't play any now that require it) or when I am booting up to format and install an OS like a windows install disc, etc.

 

[shortylickens]

I bought Skyrim boxed because it was cheaper than Steam. I also ended up actually installing it from the disc rather than just entering the serial and getting it from Steam, because Steam was extremely slow on the release day.

Other than that, I rarely use it. Last time I re-installed Windows, I actually used a USB stick.


DVD-R's have too low a capacity to be useful any more, and BD-R is too expensive per GB. Flash drives and external hard drives as well as cloud-based storage have replaced those for me.

Steam had it on sale shortly after release, just like they did New Vegas.

 

[chin311]

fairly often, at least once a week if not more. always burning images of OS's/software & then movies/tv shows for friends, music cd's etc...

 

[yhelothar]

Nope. I've been using an external hard drive or flash drives for os installs. Just about everything else that needed an optical drive, I was able to accomplish with a flash drive.

The internet for media content has also replaced my need for optical media.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Forgot, I still buy CDs and need an optical drive to burn them.

 

[MotionMan]

LOL. Turns out I just had to use mine to burn a couple CDs of pictures for my kids to bring to school.

It's either that or risk them losing a flash drive.

MotionMan

 

[RockinZ28]

Haven't even plugged mine in for several months. For some reason it started screwing up, would lock the pc on startup at the point it detects drives. Unplugging and plugging it back in fix it for a few days. So I only plug it in when I need it, which is basically never.

 

[Gothgar]

I have used it maybe 4 times in as many years.

 

[lxskllr]

LOL. Turns out I just had to use mine to burn a couple CDs of pictures for my kids to bring to school.

It's either that or risk them losing a flash drive.

MotionMan

A couple years ago BigLots had 4packs of 16mb(!) flash drives for ~$7. I picked up a couple packs for a guy I worked with, so his kids could use them for school. The size was good enough for school projects, and no heartbreak if they got lost.

 

[herm0016]

only at work to burn cds for our archives.

we keep the physical copy, and we have a central server for company wide archiving.

 

[nageov3t]

occasionally.

-watching DVD's
-burning audio CD's for the car or DVD movies to watch at a friends house

I like to keep some CD's in my car for times when there's nothing on the radio and I can't be assed to connect my ipod/cellphone (or I'm trying to conserve the battery and have my GPS plugged into the lighter)... I don't like keeping original CD's in my car, though, in case it ever gets broken into (or I get a valet with sticky fingers at a parking lot), so I'll burn CD's and stick them in jewel cases. I cycle disks in/out of my car every couple months.

it's easy enough for me to stream a downloaded movie/tv show from my computer onto my tv at home, but my friends are less technically inclined. if I'm going over to a friend's house to watch a movie, it's a lot easier to bring a disk that they can just throw in their dvd player than bringing my laptop, charger, and an HDMI cable.

 

[zCypher]

I have a samsung dvdrw in my computer, but I have probably used it less than 5 times in the past 2 years. I could definitely live without it, but you never know if you may want to burn a cd for somebody or install from CD/DVD because your flash drive just won't boot for no apparent reason.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

My laptop's has has been broken for 9 months.

My desktop still gets use ripping/burning stuff, but it's increasingly rare.

 

[Wyndru]

I use it for preOS environments (when my USB drive can't boot to the PE because the BIOS doesn't support it correctly) and also to install software.

 

[irishScott]

Well, the Airs don't have opticals, and although netbooks already were going in that direction, the Airs made it 'cool' and high end PCs are dropping them too -- see the Ultrabook spec.

Yes, and in the ultraportable market that makes sense. Beyond that optical isn't going anywhere until we get a better media for distribution. High-enough speed internet isn't anywhere near universal enough and no other current media is cost efficient enough to optical media price points. Eventually we'll develop something better and optical will die, but I imagine it'll take at least another decade, and Apple will have little to do with it if they remain the same company (more about user interaction/experience than hardware development).