Do I Still Need A CD-ROM Drive?

This is not true. There are still several devices and components that have proprietary drivers or software that need to be installed from an optical disc when new in the box, and you need to have some way (even if temporarily) to read it and extract that data or save it to another medium if you plan to install what is on that disc or those discs in alternative ways.

You can definitely copy it from the CD or DVD to a usb flash drive or the computer itself to install or use that way, but you still need to be able to physically do that through a usb external dvd or cd drive before you can. Unless you can borrow an external drive from someone when you need to do this on the fly, you still need to have an optical drive (or at least access to one) via usb if not on the system itself.

Only about half of the manufacturers are providing online downloads of the original driver discs. Even the ones that do, they often only offer scaled down and quick start versions of what they would place on the original DVD or CD a product comes with. So while in some cases you could still download what you need from the manufacturer's site for software and drivers, it isn't always the same, as complete, or as useful. Until or unless the majority of hardware is done that way, expect to at least have access to an external drive when you need one still.

 

Do you need a CD/Blue Ray drive? The answer is no, you can put pretty much any software on a bootable usb and install it through there. Or you can even mount a virtual drive on the laptop itself and install it without any hassle.

Should you have one though? I personally think yes, everyone with just a laptop should have a dvd/blue ray drive and burner. Sometimes just buying an external USB connected one works well enough, as you have it around for when you need to use it, but you don't need to spend more money or weight on having it on the laptop itself.

The reason why I say so, is because there are still software out there that you get through a CD, a long with plenty of cars out there that still us CD players (and so being able to burn your own CD is nice). Permanently giving a friend software is also much easier through a cd drive rather than a usb, and it's also easier to watch a blu ray movie by say renting it from a red box, then purchasing it digitally and having to download a 20 gb file.

 

Well that gave me a good laugh. I would have to guess that the answer these days is no, but then again I could be wrong and I am sure that there are some programs out there that you might need the CD-ROM for. Maybe there was a program in the past that was discontinued for some reason but did something really well that people go back to, I am thinking more in the academic field for some reason. I know that I have not used one in some time though, and I have gotten by just fine and without a second thought.

 

Bah humbug. I have a car with a tape player. I use Spotify and Pandora in my car. It's called a cheap adapter. Plus anybody can buy and transfer music to an mp3 player or phone that can also be played with the same adapter in a car. It is much more convenient than a CD collection.

The USB storage being spoken of is a thumb drive. You are talking about an external hard drive. Not the same and not a good supporting argument on your end. A thumb drive is less of a hassle to carry around than optical media and has more capacity.

Also, yes there is software on CDs and DVDs, but most of it is also downloadable or available in better formats. You might be able to find software on a 3.5 inch floppy as well, are you going to tell us everybody needs a floppy drive?

 

Oh yeah I know, if you have a cassette player in your car, then the cassette to aux adapter is the easiest way, and is also much more convenient than CDs.

I suppose I should clarify, does he need a CD player? No, not at all. Would he want a Blu-ray/DL-Dvd player/burner? Yes, having one is beneficial, even if it's an external one you have on the side.

And no, I was indeed talking about a thumb drive. Say you work with software, would you give someone the thumb drive for them to install it? Would you have to go to their computer, put your thumb drive in, and copy it over? Sounds negligible, but the convenience of just giving them a CD and being done with it is beneficial.

You also didn't mention the main reason why I think it's nice to have, which is that it can play blu ray disks, movies, tv shows, etc, which many fans or collectors own. Many people these days don't go completely digital when it comes to their media, they still have a shelf of blu rays or old DVDs. Not to mention downloading a full non-compressed blu-ray is easily over 20 gbs of download, which will cut into the download limit and take a while.

 

It depends on a few things.
1. If you still have some old CD/DVD based software you would like to use.
2. If you plan to use it to play DVD/blueray movies, or CD based music.
3. If you will still buy disk based software/movies/music

Anyway, how silly I am since all of the above are related. But unless you will need to do one of the above, there is no need for a DVD-ROM.

As the matter of fact, my Surface Pro 4 came with no DVD-ROM. If I absolutely have to use one, I can always buy an external one and hook it up through USB port.

Nowadays most media (including software, games, movies, music, etc.) can be purchased and downloaded online. It made disk unnecessary.

Comes to think about it, the last a few software I bought were Kaspersky Internet Security, Sims 3, Battlefield 4, all from Amazon Digital Service. So there was no disk involved.

 

My laptop comes with a DVD-Rom drive. Most of my work deals with digital files but my DVD ROM had been useful for stuff like watching movies and viewing company handouts saved on cds. If you don't have to deal with these stuff, I think you'd be perfectly fine with a computer that doesn't have an optical drive.

 

I don't believe you need a cdrom drive or a blue ray drive for that matter, physical media is becoming more obsolete everyday, now you can find almost everything downloadable, it means that you can download it and install it or watch if we're talking about a movie it or play it if we're talking about a music cd or game. You can always use a pen drive in order to install your OS, and that's the only way if you don't have a blu ray or cd drive, it's gonna be faster which is always good.

 

Mine doesn't have one either (though I could buy an external CD-ROM if I ever needed one) and I haven't had the need for it yet. If I need big files I'll store them on an USB stick and hook it up to my computer or simply just download it online. Every game that I've played has been downloaded from the internet, it's much more convenient.

 

I bought a new laptop just a few months ago. It came with a CD-ROM drive. Up till now, I still haven't used it yet. There's nothing which I want to use it for. If I could have bought the laptop for less money without the CD-ROM drive, I would have done it.

 

To be honest I am still a little surprised that they are still coming with them when you buy a new one, but I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. I am not surprised, however, that you have really had no use for it. I still have some CD-ROM programs and things tucked away, but I really know that those days are done. I do have trouble throwing things away though.

 

My computer came with a Cd-Rom as well and I bought it last year but I used it only once and it wasn't even for something for me, a friend of mine found an old CD and wanted to see what was on it. I think that it's pointless at this point in time to buy a laptop with a CD-Rom.

 

Most newer computers don't come with one. You can always buy a portable one, it connects to your computer through the USB. I personally like them because I enjoy watching DVDs. I think removing it makes laptops a lot sleeker and lighter.

 

That is a good idea, my computer came with DVD drive but it's so flimsy I'm nearly scared to use it. Fortunately I don't really need it but if I did I don't think it would last very long.

 

I still use optical media on the rare occasion at work, but at home or on the road, pretty much never. Oh, I have DVD-RW drive on main, big rig and I've got a portable Blu-Ray Reader/DVD Writer for the notebook, but I never use either any more. There just isn't much call for it anymore and it just another thing to bother with.

 

I think it's definitely something that you should have if you can get it. I get not having one on a tablet but a computer needs one if you ever have to reboot the operating system. Plus, I watch most of my DVDs on my Mac because it's convenient. If you don't want one or can't find a cheap one, you could probably get an external DVD/CD drive.

 

You don't really need a CD-ROM drive to re-install your operating system now. What you can do instead is install the operating system from the USB drive. The USB drive is a very much more convenient alternative to the CD-ROM drive.

 

I was just thinking that most programs still come on a CD not a USB. My Mac came with a CD. My Walcom board and Adobe programs came on CDs not USBs. So for me a CD-ROM is necessary even if I later put it on a USB or external hard drive.

 

Sorry I forgot about that. It's been so long since I got any program on a CD. I download everything from the Web. Even my operating system is downloaded from the Web. Other programs which I use, like LibreOffice, Gimp and Inkscape are also downloaded from the Web. To make any of my software legal, I only need to make the necessary payment, get the license number and register the software which is already installed on my laptop. Perhaps you can consider doing that, too. Is it possible for you to download your Mac operating system?