Optical drives are still practical for many users, whether to play old CDs and DVDs, install software, or create backups—especially with modern laptops, which are usually supplied without a drive.

When something goes wrong with your Mac, it's a boon to have a separate, external drive that you can work from — but Apple no longer makes that easy. Here's how to do it. The short answer to how you ...

Apple has finally started putting internal CD-RW drives in its new systems, but that’s of little comfort to those who own earlier Macs. If you long for the unlimited capacity, quick file sharing, and ...

Optical drives no longer come pre-installed in most PCs and laptops, yet they’re still indispensable for many users. Whether for playing old DVDs, installing ancient software from CDs, or burning data ...

The 1.44-megabyte floppy-disk drive is an endangered species largely because its primary predator, the CD-rewritable drive, uses media that can store up to 700MB per disk and costs only about $100. CD ...

A CD-ROM drive can be used as a stand-alone unit for playing digital audio CDs without interfacing with a computer. The stereo output of CD player available at the audio jack can be amplified using ...