What Is the Meaning of Optical Drive?

Optical drives use lasers to read and write data on plastic discs.

Optical drives are one of several different kinds of media readers common not only to computers, but to sound and theater systems.

Drives

A "drive" is any device that reads or writes data on a storage medium. The standard computer "hard drive" reads and writes to a magnetic disk, but other types of drives exist, including solid-state "flash drives" with no moving parts, and optical drives.

Optical Drives

The word "optical" is used to denote optical drives' use of lasers for reading and writing data. When data is written in an optical drive, the drive uses a laser to carve a series of pits and bumps into the surface of a plastic disc. These are then scanned by a weaker laser when the disc is read. The pits' and bumps' microscopic size allow for a huge amount of data to be stored in a very small physical space.

Uses

The first place optical drives became common was as audio CD readers in home stereo equipment. In the 1990s, optical CD-ROMs became the preferred method of software distribution. Later, DVDs and DVD-ROMs allowed for much more data to be stored on a single disc, effectively replacing videotapes and CD-ROMs, respectively.

References

• Sharpened Glossary: Optical Drive
• YourDictionary: Drive