Drives - Windows Vista

7 Using an optical drive
An optical drive, such as a DVD-ROM drive, supports optical discs (CDs and DVDs). These discs store
or transport information and play music and movies. DVDs have a higher storage capacity than CDs.
All optical drives can read from optical media and some drives can also write to optical media, as
described in the following table.
Optical drive
type
Read from CD
and DVD-ROM
media
Write to CD-
RW media
Write to DVD
±RW/R media
Write to DVD
+RW DL media
Write label to
LightScribe
CD or DVD
±RW/R
Write to DVD-
RAM media
DVD-ROM
Drive
Yes No No No No No
DVD±RW/R
and CD-RW
Combo Drive
Yes Yes Yes No No No
DVD±RW/R
and CD-RW
Combo Drive
with Double-
Layer support
Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
LightScribe
DVD±RW/R
and CD-RW
Combo Drive
with Double-
Layer support
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
NOTE: Some of the optical drives listed may not be supported by your computer. The listed drives
are not necessarily all of the supported optical drives.
CAUTION: To prevent possible audio and video degradation, or loss of audio or video playback
functionality, do not initiate Sleep or Hibernation while reading from or writing to a CD or DVD.
To prevent loss of information, do not initiate Sleep or Hibernation when writing to a CD or DVD.
14 Chapter 7 Using an optical drive ENWW