When's the last time you used your computer's CD drive or DVD drive?

[Nz17]

I ask as I hardly ever use mine. The reason is that both optical drives developed problems with reading and writing discs, primarily concerning reading and writing CD's. I know I should replace them with at least one fully functional drive, but it just doesn't seem like it is worth the effort. I have a lot of old games on discs, but most of what I play or buy is digital downloads these days, with lots of purchases from Kickstarter or GOG.com for example. Most of my PC gaming time is spent with TF2, and that is Valve's game through Steam, so you know that's all tied up in that. And as far as using the drive(s) to watch DVD's, most of my video watching these days is either television or on my Linux PC using YouTube, Twitch.tv, Amazon, Netflix, etc. So I guess you might say it boils down to habits and convenience.

[fluid_matrix]

I honestly can't remember. I do know that the next time I purchase a laptop, I will forgo the optical drive. Just doesn't seem necessary anymore.

[Gameguy]

Just a few days ago. PC disc drives are a great way of verifying that discs are fully readable using software to read through the entire disc.

[Tanooki]

I bought a couple of used CDs in the last week and I dumped the contents using CDEX to nice MP3 files for my iphone, computer and tablet.

Before that, it has been a few months since I shoved in something that really needed it. Truth be told it really gets little use other than when I need to reinstall stuff I have on discs. I have no interest in using it as a CD music player, have a decent store bought thing with 2 speakers in the room here if I want to go that far with it.

[Atarileaf]

I've been playing Sims 2 on an older Windows XP computer and the disk is always in the drive so I guess my answer is a few hours ago.

[WoodyXP]

I used a 5.25 floppy yesterday. Haven't used an optical drive in a couple years.

[The Adventurer]

Does playing my PS2 games via PCSX count?

[Gentlegamer]

In the past week I have burned Sega CD and PCE CD games.

[retroman]

I used mine the other day to rip a cd, and to also burn one.

[Niku-Sama]

I know the feeling. I usually just use mine to install Windows. All my recent pc games have been download but they have all been sub 10 dollar games to

[Flojomojo]

It has been ages for me. Spinning and lasers...it's kind of amazing that they worked as well as they do, isn't it?

We won a kid’s movie on DVD and had to spin it in the PS3 last night. I was actually surprised that it didn't look terrible compared to the streaming we usually do.

[Guntz]

Seeing as my PC interests are 5 - 10 years out of date now, yes I still use an optical drive. I still install games from disc and I also burn the occasional Dreamcast, Saturn and Sega CD game.

[Steve W]

I have a Mac Mini as a desktop and a Macbook Air as my portable, and neither one came with an optical drive. I bought a little Toshiba portable DVD drive for them, but I rarely use it. I will often buy a music track off iTunes for 99¢ just so I don't have to hunt down an old CD tucked away in a storage case somewhere, hook up an optical drive, and rip a single track just because I feel like listening to and old song.

[SilverWolf9000]

Last time I remember using it was either to watch Star Wars or install my physical copy of Assassin's Creed: Unity.

I have it just in the rare event I must use it but I do not use it that often. Usually to install an OS I suppose (did that with Ubuntu on my old laptop to get it running faster).

[Gamevet]

I still put optical drives in all of my PC builds. I just recently installed Fallout 3 GOTY (DVD) on my PC in the living room.

[MASTERWEEDO]

I burned a cd yesterday.

[Wookie]

I use mine all the time, mainly for listening to CDs I haven't gotten around to ripping, but also for installing games and playing DVDs.

[tongxingen]

Just can't remember,maybe years ago.

[Griking]

The only time I ever use mine any more is when I want to reinstall Windows or burn a music CD from time to time.

[todesengel]

I use them all the time still, bought an external DVD drive about a month ago for my iMac I recently got.

[Niku-Sama]

hmm interesting, I went and said I didn't use mine a whole lot earlier and now that I found out my recent dreamcast pickup can run mil CDs I am burning more.

interesting thing is I was able to get the first one to burn correctly on an ancient CD-R from staples that I had from highschool.
the next one wont work though and I have gone through a few discs, these other ones are Philips. I set the burn speed to 16x on both, the staples one might have been slower but I don't know because there no indication of max write speed on the disc.
one of the Philips burns (16x) doesent work period, the second I did AWS (max possible basically) and it gets the second sega screen after the dreamcast logo but then it sounds like some ones having mini laser battles in the system. seriously sounds like little PEW PEW PEWs as its going back and forth. I'm trying to write the next one at 2.4x, it defaulted to the slowest my burner will support which is 4x so we will see.

I bought a puck of verbatims at work incase its a Philips brand problem.

also using ImgBurn for the process

[wizardofwor1975]

Used my CD drive today to setup Archon Ultra on my laptop. If you liked the original Archon on the NES, A8, or the C64 then you'll probably like Archon Ultra. I personally think it's a hidden gem. Wow, that's the 1st time I've ever used the phrase, "hidden gem." But I really think it applies to this old DOS game.

http://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Simulations-Inc-Archon-Ultra/dp/B000H87W0Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437872580&sr=8-1&keywords=archon+ultra&pebp=1437872576126&perid=0KGNFTVQDM3S94VX38JP

[Edmond Dantes]

Just five hours ago, to install a game.

I actually use my drives more often to backup rare anime DVDs, especially ones that seem scratched and have trouble playing in a player--often I can make an ISO of them then play it with VLC just fine.

So yeah I can't imagine getting a comp without an optical drive.

[Steve W]

I hooked up my external DVD drive last night, so I could watch the concert film for the comedy podcast The Thrilling Adventure Hour.

[otaku]

I can't recall I am very download and stream oriented these days for better or worse. My drive works sometimes other times not-one of the reasons I no longer bother

[Gameguy]

hmm interesting, I went and said I didn't use mine a whole lot earlier and now that I found out my recent dreamcast pickup can run mil CDs I am burning more.

interesting thing is I was able to get the first one to burn correctly on an ancient CD-R from staples that I had from highschool.
the next one wont work though and I have gone through a few discs, these other ones are Philips. I set the burn speed to 16x on both, the staples one might have been slower but I don't know because there no indication of max write speed on the disc.
one of the Philips burns (16x) doesent work period, the second I did AWS (max possible basically) and it gets the second sega screen after the dreamcast logo but then it sounds like some ones having mini laser battles in the system. seriously sounds like little PEW PEW PEWs as its going back and forth. I'm trying to write the next one at 2.4x, it defaulted to the slowest my burner will support which is 4x so we will see.

I bought a puck of verbatims at work incase its a Philips brand problem.

also using ImgBurn for the process
The only media worth buying is either Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden, those are the only current manufacturers making archival quality media. I would only use anything else if I found it extremely cheap and didn't expect it to last long. ImgBurn is a good burning program, just record on the slowest speed available(like 4X) and it should be fine.

For burning discs it's not just the brand of the disc, but the firmware of the burner being used. The firmware needs to support the brand of discs being used, you have a better chance of compatibility using well known and trusted brands of discs. If a disc is generally unknown but still good quality, a drive might not know how to burn to it properly.