PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 11. CD Writers

CD Recordable
(CD-R), CD Rewritable
(CD-RW), and CD-Mount Rainier
Writable (CD-MRW)
drivescollectively called CD writers or CD burnersare
CD-ROM drives with a difference: they have a more powerful LASER
that, in addition to reading discs, can record
(also called write or burn)
data to special CD media. CD writers can be used for many purposes,
including duplicating commercial data and music CDs, transferring
large amounts of data to anyone who has a CD-ROM drive, and archiving
or backing up data. The flexibility and low cost of CD writers, along
with the low cost, reliability, and universal readability of the
discs they produce, have made them one of the most popular PC
peripherals. Any computer except perhaps an entry-level system should
have a CD writer.

Throughout this chapter, we use CD-(M)RW to refer collectively to CD-RW and CD-MRW drives. If the type matters, we use CD-RW or CD-MRW explicitly.