CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [209]
Windows and CD-Media
Virtually all optical drives are ATAPI-compliant, meaning they plug into the ATA controllers on the motherboard, just like a hard drive, so you don’t need to install drivers. You just plug in the drive and, assuming you didn’t make any physical installation mistakes, the drive appears in Windows (Figure 13-23).
Figure 13-23 CD-media drive in Windows
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NOTE More on installation and ATAPI compliance later in this chapter.
Windows displays an optical drive in My Computer or Computer with the typical optical drive icon and assigns it a drive letter. If you want to put data on a CD-R disc, however, you need special burner software to get that data onto the disc. Windows XP comes with burning support—you just drop a CD-R disc into your CD-RW drive, open the drive in My Computer, drag the files you wish to copy, and click Write to Disc. Also, Windows Media Player versions such as 9, 10, and 11 enable you to create music and data CDs within Windows XP. With Windows Vista, you can burn music and data directly to disc. Just put your CD-R into your CD-RW drive and, if AutoPlay is set to detect blank CDs, the OS presents you with the options to burn an audio CD by using Windows Media Player or to burn files to disc by using Windows. Almost every new CD-RW drive comes with some type of burner software as well, so you rarely need to go out and buy your own unless you have a preference for a particular brand. Figure 13-24 shows the opening menu of one that I like, the popular Nero optical disc burning program.
Figure 13-24 Nero optical disc burning program
When I buy a new program on CD, the first thing I do is make a backup copy; then I stash the original under lock and key. If I break, melt, or otherwise destroy the backup, I quickly create a new one from the original. I can easily copy the disc, because my system, like many, has both a regular CD-ROM and a CD-RW drive (even though CD-RW drives read CD-ROM discs). I can place a CD in the CD-ROM drive and a CD-R or CD-RW disc in the CD-RW drive. Then I use a disk-copy application to create an exact replica of the CD quickly. CD-RW drives work great for another, bigger type of backup: not the archival “put it on the disc and stash it in the closet” type of backup, but rather the daily/weekly backups that most of us do (or should do!) on our systems. Using CD-R discs for these backups is wasteful; once a disc fills up, you throw it away at the next backup. But with CD-RW, you can use the same set of CD-RW discs time and again to perform backups.
Music CDs
Computers do not hold a monopoly on CD burning. Many companies offer consumer CD burners that work with your stereo system. These come in a wide variety of formats, but they’re usually dual-deck player/recorder combinations. These recorders do not use regular CD-R or CD-RW discs. Instead, under U.S. law, these home recorders must use a slightly different disc called a music CD-R. Makers of music CDs pay a small royalty for each CD (and add it to your price). You can record to a music CD-R or CD-RW, but you cannot record from one—the idea being to restrict duplication. If you decide to buy one of these burners, make sure to buy the special music CD-Rs. Music CD-Rs are designed specifically for these types of devices and may not work well in a PC.
DVD-Media
For years, the video industry tried to create an optical-media replacement for videotape. The 12-inch diameter laserdisc format originally introduced by Philips gained some ground in the 1980s and 1990s. But the high cost of both the discs and the players, plus various marketing factors, meant there was never a very large laserdisc market. You may still find one of them sitting around, however, or you may know someone who invested in a small collection during the laserdisc’s heyday.
The DVD was developed by a large consortium of electronics and entertainment