Why one needs a dVD drive in his laptop after all, haha.

Jan 24, 2024 Last reply: 2 years ago 41 Replies
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Cindy Hamilton

I went to a computer store in 2022. I bought a used Dell and they let me sit in their work room and install Linux on it. In the showroom, there was a bunch of stuff. Computers, components, peripherals, etc.

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People laughed at me when I said I wanted a desktop and a laptop with a DVD drive. No one uses those anymore, they taunted me.



Well, I was visiting my brother and sil, and good friends of theirs had given them a telescope. They live on the 17th floor of an 18 story building, on a corner apt with a balcony.



And they are complicated. Setup especially. And guess what, included in the box was a DVD. Their computers would not play it but mine could. So there.



It turns out, the telescope is still for sale new, a couple hundred dollars iirc, but the file dates on all the DVD files was from 2008.



It included weblinks to the manufacturer, for warranty registration etc. and none of the links still worked, It also included the user manual in PDF, which is good because one of their new dogs** ate up part of the paper manual. I sent the pdf to each of their email accounts, though afaict neither reads his or her email. But if they complain later, I'll send another copy. LOL


**The dogs are maltepoos. Combination of a poodle with a malted milk.

I went to a computer store in 2022. I bought a used Dell and they let me sit in their work room and install Linux on it.

In the showroom, there was a bunch of stuff. Computers, components, peripherals, etc.

Look up MicroCenter, and see if there is one near. I think it's USA only.

One can't always tell but Cindy lives in the USA.

I have a 500 Gb hard drive that plugs into the DVD slot in my laptop ... and I can put it in any of our 3 Lenovo laptops . Oh , wait ! Y'all have those new super improved better than ever laptops that don't have DVD slots . Too bad ...

But make sure it supports DVD/DL or you are screwed with a LOT of high capacity disks - including some software install disks and many movirs

-- - . The /FL drives are a bit more than $20!!

I have a 1 TB WD external HDD that plugs into anything with a USB port...

I never broke one but those trays that slid out of a laptop looked damn fragile to me. I don't miss them.

I've got 6 3tb drives sitting in my storage cabinet - 3 in cases and 3 bare plus at leat 8 .5 TB drives and a stack of DCD and CDR media about 3 feet high. - and at least 6 CF/CVD drives not including the ones in 4 deaktops and 2 laptops - plus a portable ISB drive (that is NOT /DL compatible) - and a 3.5" external floppy - and a Radio Shack COCO2 with 2 floppies -and an MC10 with data tape drive - - - The wife is always on my case to "get rid of stuff!!!!"

after 38 years I just shut my business down. $600 videocard are "cheap ones" now - - - but you sure get a lot more for your money than when I started - an IBM PC clone - that's PC, NOT XT (so no hard drive) with 8K of ram , a single side low density 5

1/4" floppies and a low res monochrome graphics car with a green phospher monitor set you back abiout $1500 back in '88 By '90 that got you an XT or possibly AT clone with a 10MG hard drive and 256K of ram and an EGA graphics card and black and white monitor Memory chips were $8 to $16 EACH and it took 8 of them to add another 8K of RAM

$1500 buys you one heck of a desktop computer today - and that's in

2024 dollars, not 1990 dollars!!

Istopped building computers when it got tothe point I could buy a Tier 2 computer - or even a Tier 1 (IBM/Lenovo or ACER) as cheap as I could buy the parts - and half the time one or more of the parts was DOA - with a 2 year onsote warranty!!! Built may last one about 10 years ago and haven't "upgraded" one other than adding ram or hard drives or a specialty card in at least 6. (like putting in an upgraded mother board or processor) Haven't had a "retail presence" for over 30 years.

Actually, most can't even accept an optical drive OR second HDD - and a large percentage don't even have a removeable battery anymore - or any I/O other than USB (in many cases ONLY USBC) ans possibly microphone/headphone-speaker - but often only bluetooth for that too. Business class "desktop replacement" laptops are the rare exception

Actually on MOST laptops that still have an optical drive it's less than a 10 minute job to change - often involving only ONE SCREW - if you can figure out which one it is -- -On some desktops they are a royal pain - requiring total dissassembly of the case to get the screws out of the far side of the rack (those that don't use quickmount rails) On my Acer it's a 5 minute job if I have everything at hand - but adding a second drive involves porocuring the proper side rails - and they changed them every couple years - - - (even worse on an HP/Compaq)

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