Hardware and Software Guide
7–1
7
Drives
About Drives
Drives enable you to store and access data. Hard drives and
optical drives vary by model.
■
Hard drives
are for the storage of data files and of software
such as system files, applications, and drivers. A hard drive is
sometimes called a
hard disk drive.
For more information, see
the
“Hard Drive”
section, later in this chapter.
■
Optical drives,
such as a DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive,
support DVDs and/or CDs. DVDs and CDs, often called
discs,
are used to store or transport data and to play music and
movies. DVDs have a higher capacity than CDs.
The notebook can read or write to optical drives as described
in the following table.
For more information, see the
“Optical Drive”
section, later
in this chapter.
Optical Drive
Read CD and
DVD-ROM
Write to
CD-RW
Write to
DVD±RW/R
DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive*
Yes
Yes
No
DVD±RW/R and CD-RW
Combo Drive
Yes
Yes
Yes
*Some of the optical drives listed may not be supported by your notebook. Not
all supported optical drives may be listed.
