Dropping the CD/DVD/Optical Drive in Laptops?

[Cricketman]

There are a lot of people, especially in the myraid of tech forums I visit, that are for dropping the CD/DVD drive in laptop computers. It would allow the laptop to be lighter, to fit in a bigger battery, gfx cards, processors etc. Or you could even use a secondary HDD/SSD. It would even make the cost of these laptops to be cheaper. We have already seen this in Netbooks and CULV (ultra portable) laptops, how would you feel if this became a mainstream thing?

Could you live without one?

 

[SaiSrini]

I maybe cant. CD/DVD drives arent out of fashion yet. They are on the decline but they are still very much in fashion. If I am on a trip and all that I have are a few DVD's to watch (they are not available online and I dont have the drive to store them onto my laptop), I will miss the CD/DVD drive a lot.

I am not ready to give up on it now.

 

[Chewie]

In laptops, there's not much point having one unless it is your main machine and you use it for gaming. Even then, with digital distribution of games, the necessity of having an optical drive has decreased.

Nearly all netbooks don't have one, and this will probably soon spread to full-sized laptops as well. I don't think that it would have a great effect on the weight however.

 

[Abhas]

For most people I don't think it would be a problem, considering their use. I would definitely feel crippled without a DVD drive, simply because I'm used to installing a lot of software, and I like to play around with windows. If anything goes wrong, I simply need to pop in the DVD and take it from there.

Having said that, maybe it is a matter of time before I stop using it at all.

 

[Chewie]

For most people I don't think it would be a problem, considering their use. I would definitely feel crippled without a DVD drive, simply because I'm used to installing a lot of software, and I like to play around with windows. If anything goes wrong, I simply need to pop in the DVD and take it from there.

Having said that, maybe it is a matter of time before I stop using it at all.

I forgot about the need to use a optical drive when fixing windows. The thing is though that I don't normally do that on my laptop, I normally mess around with stuff like that on my desktop.

And most software is online now, there's not much boxed software that requires cds. What sort of things do you use that requires a cd?

 

[ZexyZahid]

For most people I don't think it would be a problem, considering their use. I would definitely feel crippled without a DVD drive, simply because I'm used to installing a lot of software, and I like to play around with windows. If anything goes wrong, I simply need to pop in the DVD and take it from there.

Having said that, maybe it is a matter of time before I stop using it at all.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Suppose Windows gets broken down. How do you install it then? Windows Operating Systems are being delivered on CD's/DVD's, so when you need to install it again, how to do it? I still think optional players in laptop and PC's still will feature over about 10 years. By then everybody will have a blu-ray recorder instead of a fixed DVD-recorder in their systems.

 

[Chewie]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Suppose Windows gets broken down. How do you install it then? Windows Operating Systems are being delivered on CD's/DVD's, so when you need to install it again, how to do it? I still think optional players in laptop and PC's still will feature over about 10 years. By then everybody will have a blu-ray recorder instead of a fixed DVD-recorder in their systems.

You can actually install Windows 7 using a usb stick:

Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7?Even on a Netbook

You don't need the cd but I feel that it is handier to have around

 

[Abhas]

Basically drivers for peripheral devices, all of them I can get off the net, but I prefer to keep them on a disk, just in case.

 

[Cricketman]

I forgot to add that you could plug in an external optical drive through USB.

Apple has started to ship OSX on thumbdrives. Perhaps Windows can catch on?

 

[angryangy]

You can actually install Windows 7 using a usb stick:

Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7?Even on a Netbook

You don't need the cd but I feel that it is handier to have around

Yeah, if you buy win7 from the online store, it's pretty much up to you to burn the dvd yourself (or pay extra to get a disc sent out); in theory a flash drive is every bit as good a storage option (but it's harder to write the cd key on them...)

However, it's rare that laptops even come with a proper windows disc. If the system fails, you're usually expected to destructively restore the system via a backup partition.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

There are a lot of people, especially in the myraid of tech forums I visit, that are for dropping the CD/DVD drive in laptop computers. It would allow the laptop to be lighter, to fit in a bigger battery, gfx cards, processors etc. Or you could even use a secondary HDD/SSD. It would even make the cost of these laptops to be cheaper. We have already seen this in Netbooks and CULV (ultra portable) laptops, how would you feel if this became a mainstream thing?

Could you live without one?

Nope - there are far too many games (for that's what I'd use it for if I had one) that still require the disc inserted.

 

[Dipak]

there are many games and software I buy which are available in only CD/DVD, so I can't just do away with it