Optical Storage Devices

Optical Storage Devices • An optical disk is a high-capacity storage medium. An optical drive uses reflected light to read data. • To store data, the disk’s metal surface is covered with tiny dents (pits) and flat spots (lands), which cause light to be reflected differently. • When an optical drive shines light into a pit, the light cannot be reflected back. This represents a bit value of 0 (off). A land reflects light back to its source, Representing a bit value of 1 (on) CD-ROM • In PCs, the most commonly used

Optical storage technology is called Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM).

• A standard CD-ROM disk can store up to 650 MB of data, or about 70 minutes of audio. • Once data is written to a standard CD-ROM which causes light to be reflected differently. Disk, the data cannot be altered or overwritten. Optical Storage Devices – DVD-ROM • A variation of CD-ROM is called Digital Video Disk Read-Only Memory (DVD-ROM), and is being used in place of CD-ROM in many newer PCs.

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• Standard DVD disks store up to 9. GB of data— enough to store an entire movie. Dual-layer DVD disks can store up to 17 GB. • DVD disks can store so much data because both sides of the disk are used, along with sophisticated data compression technologies. CD-Recordable (CD-R) This drive lets you record your own CDs, but data cannot be overwritten once it is recorded to the disk. CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) This drive lets you record a CD, then write new data over the already recorded data. Photo CD This technology is used to store digital photographs.