Optical Storage Devices (CD, DVD, BluRay)

Introduction

Optical Storage Devices

Optical Storages used to be incredibly popular up until the last couple of years where cloud storage and the rise of video and game streaming services have massively reduced their popularity.

Types of optical storage devices:

CD Drives (700MB)
DVD Drives (4.7GB)
BluRay Drives (50GB)

Optical storage devices offer cheap and portable high capacity secondary storage. Far more portable than an internal hard-drive, which makes them good for small / medium size backups and great for sending through the post.

How they work

Optical storage devices work by firing a laser at the surface of a spinning disk. The disc is covered in a pattern of pits in the CD surface. As the laser hits the pits it is reflected and the pattern of pits it detected by a laser detector.

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Pros & Cons

Advantages & Disadvantages of Optical Storage Devices

Advantages

Low cost per GB of storage due to being manufactured mostly from cheap plastic
Cheap and easy to distribute compared to magnetic storage
Media can be played on home entertainment systems and in-car systems.

Disadvantages

The discs can easily be scratched and therefore aren’t very robust
Most portable devices don’t support optical storage any more.
They have a fairly low read-write speed.
Burning data to a CD/DVD requires specialist software and it doesn’t always work successfully.

Optical Storage Devices (CD, DVD, BluRay)

Introduction