General computer use without an optical drive?

[HAVOC]

I did some work on my system yesterday and I removed my DVD/RW drive along with some cable management. Now that you can buy alot of software online and install it without the need for an optical drive, is one even needed anymore?

I have an external DVD/RW (USB2) that I occasionally use with my netbook. Can I use that to install Windows and other software that I still have a disk for (3 or 4 programs)? I'll also use it to burn ISO's (Linux) should I need to.

 

[maxie]

Do not need a dvd drive to install Windows as you say many netbooks do not have one any how

 

[Alejandro85]

It depends on your needs, but I see that it's being left alone more and more after each day. Almost every program now gets downloaded though internet and not have a CD, drivers often the same even though a CD is normally shipped with devices. Maybe watching DVD movies on the computer or to download a movie and burn a disc out of it, or for backup purposes.
In my notebook, my DVD drive stays unused for most things except for some rescue disk I use sometimes.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum Havoc I use mine a fair bit for burning music disks for spares and in the car etc and I find it really handy for booting ISO's too (if need be).

I know you can do that with sticks but call me old fashioned I like the disks because the smallest stick I see around these days is 4GB and I don't like "cluttered" sticks.

 

[Britton30]

Nowadays anything a CD/DVD drive can do is also possible with a USB flash drive, other than burning a disk of course. One would be needed to install a LAN driver on a new build too unless you saved it on a USB drive downloaded on another machine.

I put a floppy drive in a PC two builds back, never had any occasion to use it and I suspect optical drives will soon be a "what's that thing" item.

 

[M1GU31]

I still use mine for windows installs and burning music cds for my car or making copies of other cds i have that are important to me and some other software i have that i bought in the past to install. I say they are still useful but just not needed as often anymore.

 

[HAVOC]

Would an external drive (USB2) operate at the same speeds as an internal (SATA) drive (ex. would it take longer to install Windows)?

I do have some DVD's that I'd like to rip to my HDD incase something happens to the original. If internal is faster, I guess I should keep it.

 

[Britton30]

USB 2.0 has a theoretical throughput of 480Mbs while SATA II is 3Gbs and SATA III is 6Gbs. In real use one usually gets roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of these speeds.
The bottle neck may be the output speed of an optical drive being the same no matter how it is attached. I'm not sure if it is always the same since the disks spin at a constant 220RPM.

 

[AddRAM]

Play cd`s dvd`s , there are lots of reasons to have one.

 

[Fantail]

Well I need my opticals. Not as much as I used to, mostly just for an occasional movie.

 

[gregrocker]

You wll be fine with the external DVD drive for anything that won't install from online or flash stick.

It can boot to install Win7 using the one-time BIOS boot menu key for your PC

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Play cd`s dvd`s , there are lots of reasons to have one.

X2. Often, the music I buy is available only on CD (especially from small, independent artists) or I buy the CD instead of downloading the music to get the album art and data (downloads are often very poorly tagged, if they are tagged at all), not to mention downloads are often of poor quality. I've ripped all my CDs and eventually will do the same with my DVDs. That requires an optical drive. Some programs are available only on optical disks. Optical drives are far from dead. The biggest reason many machines don't have them anymore is to save space (such as netbooks and ultrabooks) or to cut costs.

 

[strollin]

I have one of these: Zalman ZM-VE200 SE Silver External Enclosure - Newegg.com. At first glance it seems like an ordinary external hdd enclosure but it also has the ability to emulate a DVD ROM drive. I have all my DVDs/CDs copied on to the drive as ISOs. It can be set to boot from any of the ISOs including Windows install disks. Works great with Windows as well as Linux.

The only reason I need a DVD drive now is to be able to copy the disk to ISO, after that I no longer need the disk.

 

[alphanumeric]

None of my desktop PC's have an internal optical drive. I install from thumb drives and have almost everything else I need on thumb drives. Like you I have an external USB DVD burner. I use it to install games that use DRM and to burn music CD's for the car etc. I use it less and less these days but I do need it from time to time. If it ever dies on me I'll replace it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

As long as there are HTPCs, there will be a need for optical drives. People aren't going to be giving up their CDs, DVDs, and BDs anytime soon.

 

[lehnerus2000]

A malware-free optical disc can't be infected with malware (discs that aren't RW).

A malware-free USB Stick (or USB HDD) can have malware written onto it any time it is plugged in to a PC.

 

[strollin]

As long as there are HTPCs, there will be a need for optical drives. People aren't going to be giving up their CDs, DVDs, and BDs anytime soon.

Really? I thought one if the points of having an HTPC was to rip all the CDs and DVDs and save them to a server. At least that's what I do.

 

[Layback Bear]

If you already have the drive why not just put it back in and maybe use it. Won't cost nothing you already own it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

As long as there are HTPCs, there will be a need for optical drives. People aren't going to be giving up their CDs, DVDs, and BDs anytime soon.

Really? I thought one if the points of having an HTPC was to rip all the CDs and DVDs and save them to a server. At least that's what I do.

And what do you use to rip the CDs and DVDs?

 

[strollin]

Once I have all my disks ripped I won't have much use for a DVD drive. I haven't purchased a CD or DVD in quite some time. I'll always have an external drive laying around but it will only be needed on rare occasions.