How often do you use your ODD?

The poll question is simple. How often do you regularly use your optical disk drive(s), not counting dedicated movie/music players and consoles? I find this topic interesting as more and more content that used to be distributed by physical media becomes more common to obtain digitally. There's always the question when it comes to laptops if one wouldn't be better off with an external drive since ODDs take up valuable space and adds weight.

 

A few times a month for Blu-Ray's primarily. Can I live without it? Yes. If it's offered, it better be a blu-ray though because my need for an ODD for installing or burning something it probably only a few times a year if that.

 

Haven't touched my DVDs in ages since I replaced my DVD burner with another hard drive.

 

Rarely, except to boot from a linux live disc or the occasional dvd.

 

Usually once to install the OS then rarely ever again besides burning myself more utilities (Linux discs, etc).

 

Less than once a month, only used to burn disc for old car audio ~~. In fact I dont even have a ODD, I use my bro computer to do that.

 

Install Windows 7/8, Ubuntu, etc... - 8GB USB Drive.

I'm slowly replacing all my machines with ODD's with ones without because I think they're a massive waste of space in a notebook.

 

I removed mine completely. Planned to get a cover for it to use as external but too lazy to actually do it

 

Replaced it with ODD HDD conversion bay? I know that's one of the first things I did with the Vostro I used to have. If I ever used my Sony or Apple, I'd be replacing those as well.

 

I never use it any more, all my software is digital, I'm now even installing Operating Systems via USB now.

 

I'm hoping Apple makes users bite the bullet and axes ODDs across the board with the next generation of Macs. That'll probably provide enough incentive for more PC manufacturers to ditch the space-hog as well, as HP wisely did on the Envy 15 1st/2nd Gen.

 

Imagine all the battery power you can fit in that space! That's a minimum of another 30Wh.

 

Indeed! A flush 9-cell battery, extended 12-cell? That'd be pretty amazing. Or, a more robust cooling system to support more powerful discrete graphics and/or a quad-core CPU? More ports? There's tons of better things you can do once you get rid of the ODD.

 

That would be the best use of the odd yet

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Yup precisely what i did. The caddy i got from ebay and was previously put in my MSI laptop.

The potential is limitless! Too bad no one has bothered to implement any of that

 

Well, HP did try with the Envy 15, which had a pretty powerful GPU for such a thin chassis, as well as a very good complement of ports. I do wish we would see more of those designs, though.

 

That's what I'm thinking too. Unfortunately this poll doesn't reflect how the average consumer would react to the matter. I have a feeling Blu-Ray is still a golden word, just like Full HD etc.

 

Optical drive? What's that?

 

Throwing mine in the bin as soon as i get another HDD to put in the caddy.

 

hm I haven't used mine in years.

Well I do have external USB DVD that I use when I have to, just because it's faster than the one in the laptop. But I dont use that one often either.

 

The only drawback is for us power notebook users, no 2nd HDD option for one HDD bay notebooks.

 

I pulled mine and installed a HDD caddy. I only use an ODD if I don't have access to an ISO or if I have an old CD to rip.

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Well, technically, with the space an ODD takes up, you could easily add an mSATA slot for an SSD + HDD system and still have space left over for a larger battery, more robust cooling system, etc.

 

I like the idea of the newer 9.5mm drives... smaller, lighter, etc...


I don't like the price




I wish they would bring back multi bays, but with more options. Batts, ODD, HDD, USB, HDMI, Firewire, etc. They were sooooo nice to have.

 

They do, business laptops offer either bay batteries, or official caddies.

 

My old old thinkpad used to use 9.5,
but now my new comp use 12.7 instead, and they all screw it to death like someone will steal the odd.

 

Bought the physical collector's edition of Mass Effect 3. Used my DVD drive to rip it to ISO, then installed it on both PCs from that. On my laptop, I have not used the ODD in forever, and can do without it as long as I have one on at least one computer.

 

I don't have a use for my ODD.
Once or twice I used it to burn something for other people, and even then, I keep telling them to buy a portable 2.5" usb HDD with sufficient storage capacity given how unreliable DVD's or CD's can be (at least in my experience).

All of my software/media is digital as well.
Granted I have dvd's full of older movies that I wanted to put onto my portable HDD, but I didn't even touch them in a while, and to be honest, I don't miss them in the least.
Most of the media/software I need is already on my portable HDD.

I think laptop manufacturers should definitely get rid of the ODD and offer the optical reader as an external option (they are cheap anyway, so it wouldn't be that problematic to do - and in the process, they can easily get either more efficient cooling or/and better battery capacity in place, or something else (like more powerful gpu's).

 

My m6600 doesn't have a multi bay....

 

Never.

USB for OS installs and everything else can be virtual drive'd/

 

I used to use it like once a year to reinstall Windows - with 7, even that's not necessary. Too bad, I've got a Blu-Ray drive and it's just piling up dust...

For the rest (files and Linux distros mostly), I use two card readers and half a dozen SD cards, which I accumulated over the years...

 

I have many games laying inside my drawer dusting. I use my ODD whenever I format my SSD to install Windows 7 and drivers. But I can easily just put everything on one of those USB flash drives and do it that way instead.

Its a little bit sad though since we go from owning real physical copies of games with nice covers and the joy of seeing the collection we have, to just have everything in the cloud and our game/software/music/movie selection is nothing but numbers and letters on a computer screen.
It is much more easier this way though, but I`m not shure if I am 100% for it...

 

Hell, I have to pull out a floppy drive now and again for some really stubborn systems. Some tech will just never die.

 

Multiple times a day...as a coffee cup holder.

No, but seriously I can't live without at least an external ODD.

 

Haven't had the need for one for over a year now.

My laptop doesn't have one, and my desktop one isn't even plugged in to the power supply. I have a copy of Windows on a hard drive should I ever need to install again and keep a USB pen with ubuntu on for emergencies.

Now that computers can easily boot from USB drives (hard drives, pen drives etc.) where's the need for optical disks?

Only my HTPC downstairs has a blu-ray drive which I've wastefully only used once. Maybe if I had a few more blu-rays..

 

for my laptop once a day...though it is more so spells of 5 times here and 5 times there so my guess is on average once a day. If I had a blueray drive or a desktop computer with a blueray drive it would be much more frequent.

 

Well big 17" mobile workstations...don't really need a modular battery bay as they aren't really meant to be run on battery. But Latitudes and ThinkPads have the modular bay, the mainstream workhorse laptop.

 

Once a month for me. I'm using it to install Office 2007 right now. My Envy doesn't have a built in ODD, I'm using an external drive.

 

I had to check to see if my laptop even had one. Like some people already mentioned, laptop manufacturers need to see the potential of the ODD.

 

image the disk and install via virtual drive. That's how I do it.

 

Lesse... Air doesn't have one, T400 hasn't seen its ultrabay drive in YEARS, Mini's dvd drive doesn't work (shocker!). Desktop does have two bluray drives, although only one is a burner and the other isn't connected to sata at the moment, but thats only used for installing my ethernet driver for the most part. Or backing stuff up to a bluray disk, although that has only happened once so far.

Supposedly I have one or two usb odd's, but I have NO idea where they are.

 

NBR don't like ODD doesn't mean people who buying computer don't need a ODD.

 

I swear, I have not used the ODD since I got my HP Envy 15 (1st gen without ODD). And that's 3 years

 

True, but I still think we're going to be moving away from disc media in laptops in the very near future. Ultrabooks are getting more popular, and most of them cut out the ODD because, frankly, very few Average Joes still use them on a regular basis. Even the Mac Mini, a desktop machine, has left out the disc drive. I wouldn't be surprised to see a refreshed Mac lineup with no ODD in its 15" and below machines.

 

For average, you still have windows, driver, software, game, DVD & more

Windows 8 is featuring a online upgrade I believe - check but who know how many bug etc
driver - average Joe don't need driver for computer(windows update) but printer/scanner/usb stuff (They are not going to Google for them, trust me)
software - more downloaded one but still large portion are disc based.
game - game disc for PC is going away soon probably (
DVD/blu-ray - Not going away anytime soon.

They may change a few lines (top end, ultra book, business )but for essential and multimedia one, probably not.

 

With that said, I'm betting the next MBP redesign will be ODD-less, at least on everything smaller than the 17". Even then it's not a stretch to say the 17" won't have one either.

 

Taking into consideration the limitation of storage capacity on DVD's, it's not exactly the best way to keep ones files.
Then there are issues of potential scratches that can damage the surface and make disc reading useless.

Flash drives and portable hdd are far more reliable in that regard (although granted, the latter can be fragile if it falls on the floor too many times - but it still offers inherently larger storage capacity). I'm using an 8GB usb stick from years ago.
No problems with it whatsoever - or my data on it - whereas multiple dvd's from years ago are flaky in terms of being read (even if they weren't used a lot or scratched).

 

I agree that the ODD is getting less and less use in most all-purpose laptops, but I still will have a hard time letting go of mine when I move to an ultrabook later this year. I travel a lot and while I could carry an external around for the occasional DVD burn or install, that's the problem - I still need to carry it around. Whether it's in the laptop or not, it adds weight and bulk to my shoulder, and in a less sturdy package to boot.

For the majority of non-informed (i.e. non-NBR readers) laptop users, I think they would have a similar feeling. Even if you don't use it more than once a month, getting a laptop without one would feel unnatural. I mean, what am I gonna do with this pile of old CD-ROMs from the 90s that I haven't looked at in a decade? I still know people that have piles of floppies and lament the loss of their 3.5" drive, even though they all agree the media sucked.

 

If it weren't for backing up dvd's to the external to use with the bluray player or wdtv I wouldn't use it that much.

We get the occasional cd with photos etc and rarely something that installs from a disc.

And when I was looking to purchase a small laptop for my wife I wanted to make sure it had a dvd drive just in case I needed it.

 

Steam, Netflix, HBOGO (and now Origin) have pretty well killed off my ODD needs. Its great to have one for Re-installing the OS.. but other than that.. its not as useful.

The only useful use of it is for when im on the road and want to watch a film on a DVD, or if i need to occasionally burn something to a CD/DVD.

The ODD is basically at the point the Floppy drive was at on the Origional Pentium generation of PCs. Still useful, but being phased out.