Lesson 11 Chapter 2 - Optical Drives

Question 1

Optical drives that enable you to write to optical discs are called ______

Answer 1

burners

Question 2

Each of the 3 main optical drive standards is backward compatible, T or F?

Answer 2

True

Example, Blu-Ray read/write to CD and DVD, DVDs read/write CDs

Question 3

From oldest to newest what are the 3 main optical drive standards?

Answer 3

1. Compact Disc (CD)
2. Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)
3. Blu-ray Disc (BD)

Question 4

What are 3 other ways that discs and drives are classified? (Whether or not they’re…) (3)

r, r, re

Answer 4

1. Recordable (single write)
2. Rewriteable (multiple writes) [CD, DVD]
3. Recordable-Erasable [BD]

Question 5

What’s the difference between a CD-R and CD-RW?

Answer 5

R: Single write (recordable)
RW: Multiple rewrites (rewriteable)

Question 6

What type of disc is recordable-erasable?

Answer 6

Blu-Ray Disc

Question 7

What is a drive/disc that is not writeable called?

Answer 7

ROM (read-only memory even though it’s not actually memory) such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM

[Such as commercially produced music, movie, software discs]

Question 8

What are the 2 writeable DVD format standards?

batteries

Answer 8

+ and -

Question 9

What discs can have one layer? Which discs can have 2 layers [dual layers]? (2 groups)

Answer 9

1 Layer: CDs
2 Layers: DVDs, BDs

Question 10

Optical drives in modern computers support what kinds of DVDs and Blu-ray discs?

Answer 10

Optical drives in modern computers support dual-layer DVDs and Blu-Ray discs

Question 11

Modern computers can ___, ___, and ____ to all the popular types of blanks

Answer 11

1. read
2. write
3. rewrite

Question 12

What does CDFS stand for?

Answer 12

Compact Disc File System (CDFS)

Question 13

What is CDFS? What uses it?

Answer 13

CDFS is the unique volume format that optical discs use

Question 14

What’s another name for CDFS?

Answer 14

CDFS = ISO 9660 file system

more accurately known as this

Question 15

What 2 capacities do CDs come in?

Answer 15

650MB to 700MB

Question 16

You need a ___ ___ capable drive to read and write ___ ___ discs

Answer 16

You need a dual-layer capable drive to read and write to dual-layer discs

Question 17

What does the capacity of a DVD and Blu-ray rely on?

Answer 17

How many layers it has

Question 18

What does it mean when a (DVD, not Blu-Ray) disc is double-sided? What do you have to do?

Answer 18

It means you have to flip the disc over to access the second half of the data

Question 19

All 3 of the optical media varieties are available in 3 types:

r, r, r

Answer 19

1. ROM read-only
2. Write-once (R)
3. Rewritable (RW)

Question 20

What’s the capacity difference between a single-sided and double-sided DVD? [Actual size]

Answer 20

Single-Sided: 4.7GB
Double-Sided: 9.4GB

(Dual Layer DVD discs are basically double in capacity ie 8.5GB, 17.1GB)

Question 21

What type of disc can be single-sided (SS) or double-sided (DS)?

Answer 21

DVDs only

Question 22

What’s the capacity of a single-layer Blu-ray disc and mini Blu-Ray disc?

Answer 22

25 GB
Mini blu-ray: 7.8GB

Question 23

Optical drive bays are called 5.25” bays but in reality are more like ___ wide

Answer 23

6”

(just like hard drive bays are known as 3.5” but are more like 4 inches”

Question 24

What is an ISO file?

Answer 24

It’s a complete copy of an optical media disc (an ISO image)

Question 25

How do techs use ISO images?

Answer 25

They use ISO images burned on CDs to send each other copies of bootable utilities

(they go to the website, download the ISO image, and burn the ISO image onto the disk)

Question 26

Since optical drives aren’t popular anymore, what’s an alternative when you want to burn an ISO image to a writeable CD/DVD?

Answer 26

You can copy the ISO image to a USB Flash drive using a free Windows utility

(then you can boot from the flash drive!)

Question 27

What does ISO stand for?

Answer 27

International Standards Organization (publishes the standards for most aspects of technology and manufacturing)

ISO files are named after the ISO 9660 file system not the actual organization (though they did create the file system)

Question 28

How do you test for improper physical connection (for a drive)?

Answer 28

Use the BIOS/UEFI setup utility to see whether the system can see the drive

Question 29

If the optical drive won’t read a particular disc, try a __ ____ disc that is in good condition

Answer 29

non-writeable disc

(certain types of writeable discs may be incompatible with the drive, or it might be badly scratched)

Question 30

If there are still disc read errors in an optical drive, what else can you do and how do you do it? (2)

Answer 30

Clean the drive with its built-in cleaning mechanism (if it’s modern) or use a commercial optical drive cleaning kit

Question 31

How do you clean an optical disc? How should you never wipe it? (2)

Answer 31

1. Damp soft cloth with mild detergent, alcohol, or display cleaner
2. Always wipe from the center of the optical disc to the edge NEVER use a circular motion