Do you use optical drives?

[JupiteL]

Sometimes when I got a tutorial disc from a book. It's pretty flexible rather than download everything from internet.

[SheriffHD]

i HAD to buy one when I got windows 8 disk.

 

for the past 3 years though its the first time Ive used a disk.

All my old games are ISOs on a few floppy drives.

All my OS (Windows 7 pro, Windows 7 Starter, Linus, Windows 8.1) I have on Flash drives.

If I want films to watch at work, Flash drives.

If I want audio for car 3.5mm jack or Flash drive.

If I need to transfer Large files which I use for video editing, SSD + hot swap bays.

 

As I said in the past 3 years, only time i needed it was to install windows 8.1, only reason I didnt use a flash drive was because I didnt have a computer I could use to download it.

[Henry]

yep thats what I mostly use them for, reading physiical media into my computer and possibly making boot discs of thing that arnt USB friendly, then booting off them. There is also backing certain things up as they do last considerably longer than HDDs when properly stored.

What do you multitask by using two drives?

[Real_PhillBert]

I do have an optical drive in my current machine. To be honest, I'm not sure if it even works. I haven't used it in years. 

 

My next rig will not have one.

[Guest Generallee]

I have 4 dvd writers, used for .. uhmm .. u know .. "backups"

[TheProfosist]

What do you multitask by using two drives?

Could be reading from one and burning something else to the other.

[Jaybird]

only bought an optical drive to install windows 7 because it comes on a disk. after then i disconnected the drive and threw it in a tech storage box. havent used it since. 

[TheProfosist]

only bought an optical drive to install windows 7 because it comes on a disk. after then i disconnected the drive and threw it in a tech storage box. havent used it since.

you know you can use a flash drive right?

[Jaybird]

you know you can use a flash drive right?

It was a new copy of windows 7. I dont believe it came anywhere but on a disk. also, I dont pirate or torrent.

[aznboi128]

I had one in my desktop but now it's replaced with fans 

[toms94z71]

If you do things other then gaming it is nice to have something to put data on that is cheap to give to the person that needs it. Until small usb sticks get down to a few cents a piece it will always be cheaper to use dvds or cds to give to people. I use it often to put photos on when I do photography for them.

[TheProfosist]

It was a new copy of windows 7. I dont believe it came anywhere but on a disk. also, I dont pirate or torrent.

it doesnt come on a flash drive ever but you can download the ISO and legally. I have been installing windows via flash drive since vista as its fairly easy to do and then was mad even easier by microsoft when they released a tool with win7

[Jaybird]

it doesnt come on a flash drive ever but you can download the ISO and legally. I have been installing windows via flash drive since vista as its fairly easy to do and then was mad even easier by microsoft when they released a tool with win7

hmmm. interesting. well I have no need of the disk or the optical drive anymore now that its installed. plus that was over a year ago that i did such.

[GamerDude]

I have five rigs, including an ancient AXP2800+/Abit NF-7S/AGP HD3650 system, and all have optical drives. In fect, my first 3 rigs have both a BR and DVD drive each. The drives are useful to me as I convert BR movies from my collection in HD MP4 or HD MKV formats which I store in my external HDD's for my personal enjoyment.  My main rig will have to do w/o ODD's for the immediate future as I have just transferred the components into a new case, Caselabs M8, and I did not get the ODD brackets.....silly me! It's of no consequence as I have external/portable disc drives lying around, including a MS XBOX HD DVD drive (still works!).

[aselwyn1]

I use mine for burning blu ray backups and installing games as my Internet is caped at 50gb so can't download games

[SpaceSquid]

You mean my cup holder?

[TheProfosist]

hmmm. interesting. well I have no need of the disk or the optical drive anymore now that its installed. plus that was over a year ago that i did such.

Youve made it over year without reinstalling windows, I sir am amazed!

[StormEye]

Even though I would love to absolutely stop using them ever, you have to at least use it once in a while when trying to educate yourself with books that come with CDs...

[EpicGeekonFire]

My Windows 8 Mass Licence is on a CD  

[Jaybird]

Youve made it over year without reinstalling windows, I sir am amazed!

not that hard. just gotta keep track of which websites you visit and youre good.

[EclipseSkye]

Have not used it for ages, I even disconnected the power and data cables from it because it was kinda pointless and kinda out of place.

[TheProfosist]

not that hard. just gotta keep track of which websites you visit and youre good.

Thats not what causes me to reinstall. Windows just tends to slow considerably and sometimes even break. Sometimes its just certain programs that I cant get working and other times its other things like my laptop has a clean install of 89.1 for 3-4 months now and you cant open a file but clicking the file the program doesnt find it you have to open the program then open the file in the program which is super annoying. Also there is always at least one of my gadgets that broken and it changes which ones every restart.

[Cwazywazy]

I use them sometimes. Mostly for installing OSes and old games and that stuff. After I got my new computer my optical drives were all IDE so I rigged one up with a IDE external drive enclosure thing and used it to install everything and then went about 6 months like that until my dad got me a SATA DVDRW drive for my birthday. I use it sometimes. (Not very often at all, but it's nice to have.)

 

I rarely use the drive in my laptop so I'm thinking of eventually getting a HDD caddy that goes into the drive bay so I don't need to have my external drive plugged in whenever I want to watch a movie/show I have or play a big game. (I have a 50GB SSD in it now and a 250GB HDD in the external USB drive enclosure.)

[GarlanTyrell]

Is there an option for nearly every day?
We have quite an extensive DVD and Blu-Ray library that I often use my PC to play them. Also some of my favourite games are old and still on disks. (I know that I COULD rip them, but (irrationally) I like the feeling of 'ownership' of physical based media. Plus the compression used when I last tried it made them look worse.

[Jaybird]

Thats not what causes me to reinstall. Windows just tends to slow considerably and sometimes even break. Sometimes its just certain programs that I cant get working and other times its other things like my laptop has a clean install of 89.1 for 3-4 months now and you cant open a file but clicking the file the program doesnt find it you have to open the program then open the file in the program which is super annoying. Also there is always at least one of my gadgets that broken and it changes which ones every restart.

Sounds like user error. HAHA. I only partially kid. the only problem Ive ever had that was a result of me doing something stupid was taking my macbook to 10500FT and trying to use it make videos of my ski vacation. apparently apple is quiet stricked when they say max altitude 10000FT. did this on 2 different trips and both times encountered problems with a file corrupting. usually takes about 3 months for the mac to sort out the error or you can fix it by deleting the corrupted file. the currupted file freezes it indefinately.

 

nope, not gonna spell check this paragraph.