Computer Hardware:
     • Tools, Static & Cleaning
     • Form Factor
     • PC Case & Fans
     • Motherboard
     • Processor (CPU)
     • Power Supply Unit
     • RAM
     • Hard Drive
     • Solid State Drive
     • Optical Drive
     • Floppy Disk Drive
     • Graphics Card
     • Sound Card
     • Network Card
     • Computer Monitor
     • Keyboard & Mouse
     • Laptop / Netbook
     • Building a Computer
     • Overclocking

Operating System & Backup:
     • Operating System
     • Drivers
     • Windows Tools
     • User Accounts
     • Backup
     • Windows 10

Internet & Network:
     • Internet
     • Wi-fi or Cable
     • Improve Broadband Speed
     • Network Computers

Computer Peripherals:
     • Printer
     • Scanner
     • External Hard Drive
     • USB Flash Drive

Computer Security:
     • Anti-virus
     • Anti-Spyware
     • Phishing
     • Firewall

Common PC Problems:
     • Slow Computer
     • Hardware Failure
     • Software Failure
     • Printing Problems

Miscellaneous:
     • Windows Shortcuts
     • Glossary of Terms
     • HTML Colour Picker
     • Number Base Converter

Optical Disks

Optical Disks are used to store programs, operating systems, and games which can be installed on your computer. They can also contain music and video. With the right software and Optical Disk Drive you can write or burn your own data to a disk for backups or make music and video disks.

DVD-R Optical Disk inside case.


Compact Disk:

The standard compact disk has a diameter of 120mm (4.7 inches) and can hold up to about 80 minutes of uncompressed audio or about 700MB of data.

A Recordable compact disk (CD-R) is a blank disk which can be written to only once but read many times.

A ReWritable CD (CD-RW) is a blank disk that that can be read, written, erased, and rewritten to many times.

DVD:

The standard DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) is the same size as a Compact Disk but can hold much more data:

A typical Single-sided, Single-layer DVD can hold 4.7GB of data:
A Doubled-sided, Single layer DVD can hold 9.4GB of data.
A Single-sided, Dual-layer DVD can hold 8.5 to 8.7GB of data.
A rare Double-sided, Dual-layer DVD can hold 17.08GB of data.

As with the Compact Disk you can also get a Recordable DVD (DVD-R or DVD+R) which can only be written to once, and ReWritable DVD (DVD-RW or DVD+RW) which can be written and rewritten to many times.

There are DVD disks available in +R and -R (or +RW and -RW) formats and both should work equally well in a computer DVD optical drive although -R (-RW) is considered to be more widely compatible with other devices.

A Dual-layer DVD has a second physical layer within the disk and the laser can focus on either layer. If you want to write data to a Dual-layer DVD then you will need a DVD Disk Drive that is capable of doing this.

Blu-ray Disk:

A Blu-ray Disk (BD) is is the same size as a Compact Disk or DVD but is designed to supercede the DVD as it holds much more data. It is called Blu-ray because it uses a blue laser instead of the red laser used in DVD Disk Drives. Blu-ray disks are used to store high-definition films due to their large capacity.

A Single-layer Blu-ray disk can hold 25GB of data.
A Dual-layer Blu-ray disk can hold 50GB of data.

As with the Compact Disk and DVD you can also get a Recordable Blu-ray disk which can only be written to once, and ReWritable Blu-ray disk which can be written and rewritten to many times.

You will need a Blu-ray Optical Disk Drive in order to read and write to Blu-ray Disks.



MENU (Optical Disk Drive):
1. Optical Disk Drive 2. Upgrading Optical Drive 3. Optical Disks