So laptop today don't come with seperate optical drive anymore?

[luvya]

I remember just 2 years ago when my bro bought his Compaq Presario, it still comes with 2 seperate optical drive. It's good for On-the-fly copy and swap for floppy drive if needed. Nowaday, I can't seem to find a laptop with the same feature anymore. Even the high end ones don't have such feature anymore. I think this is a step back in terms of convenicence and technology.

 

[Shawn]

what do you mean? an external floppy?

 

[iamme]

do you mean a swappable floppy drive and optical drive? if so, most laptops have this.

 

[luvya]

Does it? I am not aware of any compaq or dell have this feature....swappability? All the drives seem to be fixed now.

 

[digitalsm]

There are plenty of laptops that can have optional second optical drives(or hard drives, etc). They are usually the one that are 8-12 pounds. You are probably looking at thin and light notebooks.

Sager
VoodooPC

 

[DaveSimmons]

Some of the IBMs have connectors to attach an "Ultrabay" where you can (I think) add a second drive.

Also the newest laptops have USB 2.0 so it's easy to buy either an external drive or an empty external 5.25" enclosure you can use with a normal desktop optical drive. USB 2.0 is fast enough that you could rip / copy at full speed, not like the 4X of USB 1.x

 

[mpitts]

Floppy drives aren't optical drives.

 

[luvya]

that's why I didn't say floppy is optical drive. CD-RW and DVD-rom are the 2 optical drives I was talking about.

 

[ThaGrandCow]

Originally posted by: luvya
that's why I didn't say floppy is optical drive. CD-RW and DVD-rom are the 2 optical drives I was talking about.

Back in the day you could only get proprietary secondary drives, they were not interchangable between laptop models, much less different companies. Just get a USB cdrom or cdrw and you'll be set, they're not that expensive.

 

[vegetation]

Also the newest laptops have USB 2.0 so it's easy to buy either an external drive or an empty external 5.25" enclosure you can use with a normal desktop optical drive. USB 2.0 is fast enough that you could rip / copy at full speed, not like the 4X of USB 1.x

True but external devices defeat the purpose of portability. If I'm going to have to take the trouble of attaching something external I'm better off just going to my desktop.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: vegetation

Also the newest laptops have USB 2.0 so it's easy to buy either an external drive or an empty external 5.25" enclosure you can use with a normal desktop optical drive. USB 2.0 is fast enough that you could rip / copy at full speed, not like the 4X of USB 1.x

True but external devices defeat the purpose of portability. If I'm going to have to take the trouble of attaching something external I'm better off just going to my desktop.

this is for a second drive though, not the primary, and should work well for a laptop [ to back up some CDs at home ], unless a "mobile infringement platform" for LAN parties is the goal.

 

[luvya]

Just came back from Compusa, none of the laptops they have equipped with floppy drive. When I mentioned the swappability, the salesman was shocked that I demand such thing. So please enlighten me if you know any model with this feature.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: luvya
Just came back from Compusa, none of the laptops they have equipped with floppy drive. When I mentioned the swappability, the salesman was shocked that I demand such thing. So please enlighten me if you know any model with this feature.

Gateway offers laptops wiht this feature.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: luvya
that's why I didn't say floppy is optical drive. CD-RW and DVD-rom are the 2 optical drives I was talking about.

the models we are using at work have a combo DVD-CDRW that is removable (the bay can also take a floppy or 2nd battery)


HP N6000

 

[luvya]

That must be an old model. Can't find N6000 in hpshopping.com

And I hate the combo drive that comes with today's laptop, I've been trying to burn something in the HD...have not been successful yet!