CD-ROM Drive stands for Compact Disc - Read Only Memory Drive. It is an external device of a computer system which has a major function of reading Compact Discs. Today's CD-ROM Drive technology has transfer rates of 48x - 75x or more. Generally, purchasing a CD-ROM Drive is as easy as purchasing over the counter but you should consider also some things to make sure that you purchased the right CD-ROM Drive for your computer system.
CD-R CD-R Drive stands for Compact Disc - Recordable Drive. This is used to write files and any data on CD-R labeled discs. This drive has can read data from a Compact Disc or write data to a Recordable Compact Disc. This is usually created with Compact Disc Writer. Most of this drive has a speed of 52x above.
CD-RW CD-RW Drive stands for Compact Disc - Rewritable Drive. To be able to use its rewritable feature, you should also use rewritable compact disc labeled CD-RW. This drive usually has a read speed of 52x above and write or rewrite speed of 10x or more. CD-RW drive is more advanced and expensive compared to CD-R Drive. This drive can read and write both data on CD-R labeled discs and CD-RW labeled discs.
DVD DVD stands for Digital Video Disc drive. DVD-ROM has an extremely high storage capacity ranging from 4.7 Gigabytes to 17 Gigabytes.
TRANSFER RATES Today's CD-ROM drives have read and write speed of 52x to 72x. A 52x CD-ROM Drive has a 7200 Kbps or 7.2 Mbps. The higher the transfer rate the faster the CD-ROM Drive to read data. This speed can be noticed when you are installing a program from a Compact Disc installer or copying data from a Compact Disc.
PRICE CD-ROM Drive or a DVD Drive varies in price depending on their features if it is rewritable or read only and most of all it varies from its speed of reading and writing data to a compact disc.