disc drive

Optical media player

A disc drive is a device that reads data from and writes data to optical discs—CDs, DVDs, or Blu-rays.

The spelling with a c typically refers to optical media, while disk drive (with a k) usually means magnetic storage like hard drives.

My laptop doesn't have a disc drive, so I can't play DVDs.

optical

CD

Optical data disc

  • DVDOptical media format
  • Blu-rayHigh-definition optical media
  • laserConcentrated light device

tray · burner · reader · rip · burn · eject · spindle · lens · jewel case · recordable

hardware

platter

Large flat serving dish

  • spindleRotating rod for thread
  • motorEnergy-to-motion converter
  • actuatorDevice producing controlled motion

SATA · IDE · interface · firmware · buffer · cache · bay · chassis · mounting · connector

storage

SSD

Chip-based storage device

  • HDDMagnetic platter storage device
  • filesStored data collections
  • dataFacts for analysis

backup · megabytes · gigabytes · terabytes · read · write · partition · filesystem · format · retrieval

multimedia

player

Game participant

  • movieRecorded visual narrative
  • albumUnified collection of recordings
  • musicOrganized auditory art

video · audio · console · entertainment · playback · media · soundtrack · rip · burn · autorun

Categories
Opposites
storage technology type

disc drivesolid-state drive

Flash-based persistent storage

SSD · flash drive · USB flash drive · flash memory · memory card

data permanence/volatility

disc driveRAM

Temporary data storage hardware

volatile memory · DRAM · working memory · cache memory · random access memory

Family

drive, driver, disc, hard drive, flash drive, hard disk, diskette, floppy disk, disk drive

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G