CD-ROM drives. What is a floppy drive

((CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW), ending. Starts at 25).

CD-RW

So, next I will talk about choosing a CD-RW drive. In general, I want to say right away that the basic principles and approaches to choosing a CD-ROM drive remain the same for CD-RW drives. These include reading speed, average access time, interface, warranty issues, supported disk formats. It’s just that CD-RW drives have their own nuances, usually related to recording discs, which I’m going to tell you about now.

First of all, I would like to start by indicating the speed of the CD-RW drive. Typically, the documentation indicates 3 parameters of the speed formula, for example: 12/16/40. This is due precisely to the recording capabilities on it. The first number 16 indicates the speed of primary recording to a blank, the second number 12 indicates the speed of secondary rewriting to a CD-RW blank, and, finally, the number 40 is the maximum speed of reading from a disk in this drive. I would like to immediately note one very significant disadvantage of CD-RW drives - this is, in most cases, a rather low speed of secondary rewriting to a blank. Although this minus is already becoming less and less noticeable, because Progress in the field of computer technology does not stand still, and many disk drive manufacturers have already taken serious steps towards increasing rewriting speed.

I would also like to especially draw your attention to the disc burning software that comes with the drive. Having high-quality software is the key to your reliable and efficient work when burning discs. I would like to note the fact that the developers of recording programs have worked hard in recent years to modernize them and eliminate errors. This is especially true for the leader in the development of such programs - Adaptec. The latest versions of this company's programs have introduced several additional useful features that improve the copying process and sometimes even save your time. For example, Adaptec DirectCD can now write data to compressed CDs, which in certain cases significantly increases the amount of information that can fit on a disk.

And yet, when choosing a particular CD-RW drive, pay attention to what “blanks” are required for its normal operation. Typically, a list of recommended media is provided in the documentation for the drive. And be sure to ask if there are such “blanks” in stores in your city. This is especially true for high-speed drives, because... For normal recording at high speeds, they often require special “blanks”, which may be very difficult for you to obtain.

As for the companies directly involved in the production of CD-RW drives, they are, in fact, the same ones that I mentioned when considering CD-ROMs. All these companies are in conditions of fierce competition for a place in the market, which leads to an increase in the quality and modernization of their products, as well as to a constant reduction in prices for CD-RW drives. And as a result of this struggle, undisputed leaders emerge. Now I just want to give an example of several CD-RW drives that, in my opinion, deserve so that special attention is paid to them.

Undoubtedly, the disk drives of this company have always been distinguished by very high recording quality, which was simply confirmed once again by the Plextor PX-W2410TA model. When choosing such a drive, you will probably no longer need to think about the fact that you will not have enough functions or that you will not be satisfied, for example, with the writing speed. All this is practically excluded. After all, the developers of this model really took care of their customers. By buying this model, you are, as it were, buying yourself a drive to grow into. Those. At the moment, for example, it is quite rare to have “blanks” in stores with the ability to record on 24X, this is especially true for small towns on the periphery of our country. But, in any case, the development of computer technology does not stand still, and I am simply confident that in the near future, 24X recording speed will become a kind of “pioneer” minimum when purchasing a CD-RW drive. Although, it would not be amiss to note that buying a disk drive “for growth”, as a rule, leads to an increase in its price. Those. you, in fact, are paying extra money for parameters that are unnecessary at this time. Although, on the other hand, by buying such a drive, you ensure peace of mind in the future and the opportunity not to think about purchasing a new drive for a long time. And if we add to everything the promised 2-year warranty provided by the manufacturer, then purchasing such a CD-RW drive is probably worth thinking about, although you also need to take into account the fact that this drive is the most expensive of all the CD-RW drives discussed in this article.

Next, I would like to mention another CD-RW drive, which I personally have deep sympathy for.

The NEC NR-7800 drive is indeed a very successful brainchild in the field of CD-RW drives from NEC. It includes the main "fresh" technologies that allow you to most efficiently and reliably record discs at fairly high speeds. The quality of recording on blanks is very high, the probability of failure is minimal. It works almost silently. It has significantly lower access time than the Plextor PX-W2410TA, which allows you to greatly increase productivity. But it has a 2 MB buffer versus the 4 MB of the Plextor drive and is capable of running at lower speeds than the Plextor. The downside, in my opinion, is that the delivery package of this drive does not include absolutely anything, i.e. it comes “naked” and not even in a box, but in a regular bag. This means that you will have to find all the software and cables for it yourself. But, on the other hand, this is good, because in this case you do not overpay your money for things you don’t need, for example, for colorful packaging, which, as you know, does not add anything to the device except the price. And if we also take into account its relatively low price, then I think that this device will be able to take its rightful place in the system units of many users. In conclusion, I want to say that the NEC NR-7800 drive, in my opinion, is the best choice for the average buyer today in terms of price/quality ratio.

And I also bring to your attention another drive - ASUS CRW-1610A - also a very successful, in my opinion, model of a CD-RW drive, allowing for very reliable recording to media at fairly high speeds. For that, thanks to ASUS FlextraLink technology. It works quite smoothly and almost silently, and DDSS II technology takes care of reducing disk vibration in the drive, which, again, has a positive effect on the behavior of pirated disks at maximum speeds. It is also worth noting the dust-proof design and minimal use of the system.

So, in my opinion, you can also pay attention to this drive. In terms of price, it occupies a middle position between the Plextor PX-W2410TA and NEC NR-7800 drives. Its speed formula is the same as that of the NEC NR-7800 drive, but in terms of access time it even loses to the latter. The somewhat higher price of this drive, in contrast to the NEC NR-7800 drive, in my opinion, is explained by the fact that, firstly, the manufacturer claims a significantly longer MTBF, and, secondly, this drive has a richer set of components (it Comes in a colorful box with all software, drivers and cables).

Of course, there are many other models of CD-RW drives from various manufacturers, and each of these models has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is not possible for me to describe each of them in detail within one article. I just gave a few examples of CD-RW drives that I personally like best in terms of price/quality ratio. So, the final choice of a specific drive model is yours. Moreover, as you know, progress in the field of computer technology does not stand still, and every month more and more new models of disk drives appear on the market.

So, for example, NEC presented its new model of internal ATAPI (Ultra DMA 33 mode 2) CD-RW drive NR-9100. Here are some of its characteristics:

Recording speed: 40X;

Rewrite speed 10X;

Reading speed 40X;

Access time: 98 ms;

Buffer: 2 MB (the new product supports JustLink write buffer protection technology);

Supported formats: CD-DA, CD Extra, CD Text, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-I, CD-I Ready, CD-Bridge, Photo-CD and Video CD;

Additionally: Active OPC technology (active optimum power control, optimization of laser radiation power when recording). Recording methods - DAO (disc at once), SAO (session at once), TAO (track at once), multi-session mode. The drive is functional in a vertical position, compatible with the Mt Rainier format, and will most likely be available for sale in May 2002.

Or, for example, TEAC announced the release of a new internal drive CD-RW540EKB with ATAPI interface, which is already starting to ship. Here are some of its characteristics:

Write speed: 40X (6 Mb/sec);

Rewrite speed 12X (1.8 Mb/sec);

Reading speed 48X (7.2 Mb/sec);

Access time: 72 ms;

Buffer 8 MB (supports BURN-Proof write buffer protection technology);

Drive operating modes: CD-R recording: 40x - 20x/32x - 20x/24x - 20x, Zone-CLV; CD-R recording: 20x/16x/8x/4x - CLV; CD-RW recording: 12x/10x/4x - CLV;

The drive works with discs with a diameter of 80 mm and 120 mm;

Works with UDF (Universal Disk Format) file format. Drive interface - IDE (ATAPI).

And I would also like to say that the prices of CD-RW drives have dropped very much in recent years, which has directly increased the demand for these drives, and now on average they are not much more expensive than CD-ROM drives. So, now many users, when buying a new computer, choose a CD-RW drive as a standard drive. And if we take into account such a very important possibility of these drives as recording information on fairly capacious optical media, then the obvious conclusion is that in the future, with a further reduction in the price of CD-RW drives, perhaps such components as, for example, 3.5- inch drives will simply become history. And this is now becoming more and more obvious. CD-ROM drives, in my opinion, will not become history in the near future only for the reason that the function of recording from one disk to another is very convenient when installing both CD-RW and CD-ROM drives on one computer.

So, I think that by now you already have the basic knowledge to choose the right, reliable and, if possible, inexpensive optical drive for your computer. Most importantly, do not make hasty decisions when choosing a drive and be sure to analyze in detail certain capabilities and characteristics of a particular drive model before purchasing it. After all, only in this case will you be able to purchase a drive that is truly necessary for your purposes, which in the future will suit you in absolutely all respects. And don’t forget: the optical drive cannot be upgraded or returned to the company, for example, if it does not suit you for some reason, so you will need to make the right choice of drive the first time. And I’m just sure that if you take the problem of choosing a disk drive seriously, then your system unit will have a truly reliable, modern and high-quality disk drive that will serve you for many years. I wish you a good choice!

What is a CD-ROM and DVD drive?

Optical storage Nowadays you can find a computer without CD-ROM/DVD drive almost impossible. A wide variety of programs, music, video files, documents, digital photographs, etc. are recorded on CDs and DVDs. You can purchase both discs with already recorded data (for example, a music CD or DVD with a movie), and special discs on which you can (one or more times, depending on the disc and drive) record any information you need.

In addition to the not entirely correct name “disk drive,” devices for reading and writing CD/DVD disks are also called optical drives. The word drive generally refers to all devices designed to store or read data. For example, a hard drive can be called a disk drive. The word "optical" refers to the method of reading data from disks. In CD/DVD drives, data is read and written from disks using a special laser beam.

There are several types of CD-ROM and DVD drives, with and without recording support.. Let's take a closer look at them.

Regular CD-ROM drive only allows read data from CD, CD-R and CD-RW discs. You cannot write data to any discs using it. Such drives are the cheapest, but are already outdated and cannot be installed in new computers.
Writeable CD-ROM drive. Unlike the previous option, using such a drive you can write data to write-once (CD-R) or write-once (CD-RW) discs.
DVD drive. This drive combines the capabilities of the two previous drives, i.e. allows you to write and read data from CDs, and can also read data from DVDs.
Recordable DVD drive. This the most versatile and popular drive option that recommended for purchase. With this drive you can read and write any discs, including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+-R/RW.
Also every year they become more and more popular drives that support Blu-rey disc reading

Basic Types of Optical Discs

As you know, recording capabilities depend not only on the drive, but also on the discs themselves. Let's study the main types of optical disks that currently exist.

CD, or CD. The simplest option optical disk. Such discs sell either music (music CDs) or various programs. You cannot write anything to such a disc..
CD-R disc. On such a disk you can write it down once the information you need. You can’t add it later. One CD-R disc can store up to 880 MB of data, depending on the disc capacity. Such disks are most often used to store important information that will not need to be changed in the future. This could be music, video files, etc.
CD-RW disc. This disc has the same capacity as CD-R discs, but the data on it can be record many times and delete the data you don't need. In total, such a disk is designed for approximately 1000 rewrite cycles, which is more than enough, for example, for periodically recording Word documents, then deleting them and recording new files. CD-RW discs are more expensive than CD-R discs.
DVD-ROM or DVD Video. These are the discs they sell on. DVD movies. Anything You can't write to a disc like this. At the same time, the volume of a single-layer DVD disc is 4.7 GB, which is several times more than the volume of CD discs.
DVD-R disc and DVD+R disc. Just like CD-R discs, DVD-R and DVD+R discs can be write it down once the data you need. Unfortunately, at one time the companies producing optical disks and drives turned against each other and became irreconcilable enemies, as a result of which two standards that were completely incompatible with each other, DVD+R and DVD-R, appeared. Fortunately, optical drive manufacturers have solved this problem and now, for most drives, it doesn't matter which drive you use; Both types of disks will be supported.
DVD+RW and DVD-RW disc. By analogy with CD-RW discs, DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs can be record repeatedly data With a disk capacity of 4.7 GB, this is very convenient for storing and backing up a wide variety of data, such as your music collection, etc. The problem of incompatible standards exists here too, and it was solved in the same way - by releasing universal small-format drives that support any type of disk.
Blu-ray disc we have a huge volume that allows record up to 80 gigabytes of information! Agree, this is a lot for an optical drive! In most cases, such disks record video with increased clarity, which allows you to achieve maximum film quality! The cost of such a drive can reach up to 2000 rubles!

Optical drive speed

The speed of an optical drive is usually indicated in this way: 52x/24x/52x. This means that CD-R discs are written at 52x speed, CD-RW discs are written at 24x speed, and CD-R/RW discs are read at 52x speed. In this case, the 1x indicator means a data transfer speed of 153 KB/s. Now let's calculate the speed of a disk drive with a read speed of 52 x. To do this, multiply 52 by 153, the result will be 7956 KB/s, i.e. almost 8 MB/s.

Compared to CD-ROM drives, rewritable DVD drives read and write data much faster. The speed of a 1x DVD-ROM drive is 1.35 MB/s, which is similar to the speed of a 9x CD-ROM. Therefore, the speed of modern DVD-ROM drives with a read speed of 20x corresponds to the speed of 180x for CD-ROM drives (27 MB / s), although, of course, such speed does not exist for CD-ROM drives

CD-ROM drives are now standard equipment in almost every PC. The widespread use of such devices is explained by their low cost (mostly up to 100 USD) and large capacity (640 MB). Almost all software products are supplied on CDs. All computer CD-ROM drives are compatible with CD-Audio discs, which play at speeds of about 150 KB/s. CD-ROM discs are read at least at double speed (300 KB/s). Data transfer speed is the most important characteristic of CD-ROM drives.

The main way to increase the speed of a CD-ROM is to increase the spindle speed. CD-ROM drives come from the world of music technology, where a constant data transfer speed was required regardless of whether the disk was being read from external or internal areas. Since the recording fee is the same everywhere, it is possible to maintain data transfer at a constant pace only by increasing the rotation speed when approaching the center of the disk. Currently, different companies take different approaches to determining the speed of their CD-ROM drives. Most companies rely on the maximum data transfer speed. For example, if for an Acer CD-ROM this figure reaches 4800 KB/s, then the drive is marked as “32x max”.

The maximum data transfer speed for “20x max” and faster drives is achieved only on tracks recorded closer to the outer edge of the disk. For example, 24x max drives operate on internal tracks at approximately the same speed as 10x. And if we take into account that not every CD-ROM disc is written in full, then the real performance of such drives corresponds on average to the performance of 14-16-speed CD-ROMs with a constant data transfer rate.

Current literature often makes no distinction between access and retrieval times in a CD-ROM. In fact, these are two different characteristics and, although search time is a component of access time, these two quantities are not strictly related. The second component of the average access time is the average latency, which depends solely on the angular speed of rotation and is equal to half the time required for a full revolution of the disk. In modern CD-ROM drives, due to the enormous spindle rotation speed, comparable to average hard drives, the contribution of average latency to the total access time has noticeably decreased compared to 2-speed devices, but even now it should not be neglected: say, a CD-ROM drive A ROM with an access time of 90 ms, all other things being equal, will most likely be preferable to a device with a seek time of 80 ms. Another inevitable source of access slowdown is the time required for error correction, which, unlike the previous component of access time, is not as easily predictable. When figuring out these characteristics, it is difficult to use passport data, since data from different manufacturers may simply be incomparable. Objective information can only be obtained by comparative testing with specialized packages.

CD-ROM drives are produced in two classes - with loading a CD into a pull-out tray or a special cassette. In addition, for many users it is important to have a number of additional buttons on the CD-ROM panel for listening to audio discs without specialized software.

Like hard drives, CD-ROM drives are produced with IDE and SCSI interfaces. At the same time, SCSI CD-ROM has a number of advantages and disadvantages, just like SCSI HDD.

Among the drive manufacturers we can mention: Acer, Aztech, Elitegroup, Hitachi, Matsushita, Philips, Pioneer, Plextor, Sony, Techmedia, Teac, Wearnes.

What is a CD-ROM and DVD drive?

There are several types of CD-ROM and DVD drives, with and without recording support.. Let's take a closer look at them.

Basic Types of Optical Discs

As you know, recording capabilities depend not only on the drive, but also on the discs themselves. Let's study the main types of optical disks that currently exist.

Optical drive speed

Updated – 2017-03-04

Windows doesn't see the drive. What surprises does the computer present to us? Going to bed and don’t know whether it will turn on tomorrow? or anywhere at all? This used to worry me all the time too. The most interesting thing is that the surprises are always different. One day, I suddenly discovered that the disk drive icon had disappeared in the My Computer folder on my system. Windows just doesn't see the drive. What to do? First you need to check the drive itself.

The drive tray itself extends and accepts discs, which means the problem is either:

in the train,
in the drive,
in the drive controller.

Most likely the reason is in the drive itself. But it doesn't hurt to check.

If the drive worked normally before, then let's try.

If for some reason it is impossible to restore the system, then we check whether our drive is visible in the BIOS.

If the drive is not detected in the BIOS, then check the cable (cable) that connects the drive to the motherboard. If possible, we replace it with one that is known to work.

I checked the drive with a working cable, but it is still not detected. Then we try to connect the drive to another computer to determine its functionality.

If the drive is working, then enter “ device Manager» ( Start – Settings – Control Panel – System – Hardware – Device Manager) . Check at the bottom on the tab " Are common" in the window " Application of devices » whether the device itself is turned on. If it’s turned off, then turn it on through the same window (just select the entry “ This device is in use (on) ».

Let's see if the entry contains " DVD and CD-ROM drives » our disk drive. And is there an exclamation mark on a yellow background next to the entry?

If there is an exclamation mark next to the drive, then we try to remove the drive driver (double-click on the name of the drive, select the “ tab Driver" and press the button " Delete"). Reboot the computer.

After rebooting, the system should automatically detect the drive and load the driver.

If the drive and cable are working, then this should help, but if not, then most likely you will have to fix it.

Let's try to boot any self-booting disk, having previously set the BIOS to boot from the CD drive. If the boot occurs and the disk opens, but Windows still does not see the disk drive, then we have a problem with the operating system. Here you need to first check the system for viruses, and then delve into .

In the meantime, you can play in the casino for money. Maybe you'll get lucky.