Is an external CD-DVD/RW drive a complete replacement?


  1. Posts : 84
    win10
       #1

    Is an external CD-DVD/RW drive a complete replacement?


    Is an external CD-DVD/RW drive a complete replacement for an internal drive?

    I would like to replace my non-functioning internal CD-DVD/RW drive with an external drive, such as the Dell drive listed in the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Dell-DW316-Ex...M6040WGXPZNYW1


    I'm particularly interested in burning and using bootable CD's needed for some app's, where CD's seem to work much better than flash drives.

    An excellent example is my current attempt to create a Macrum Reflect Emergency Boot Disk, where a standard flash drive with a FAT 32 format is not suitable without special formatting first. My first formatting attempt resulted in a flash drive that was not recognized except in disk management.

    Jim
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,020
    Windows 10 Pro 20H2 19042.572
       #2

    The only down side is that you won't be able to boot your system from an external CD/DVD drive. Other than that, you will be able to burn, read/write and access from applications the data that you have on the disk in the drive. But in your example of using it to boot Macrium Reflect Boot Disk, no so much. Besides Flash drives are much faster than any optical drive.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 550
    10 pro 64
       #3

    Yes to your question but you need to make the changes in the bios set up . You need to have the external drive listed first in the boot order to boot off it . Also, if you buy one that's usb 3.0 the computers you use it on better have a 3.0 usb port or else you will probably need to load a driver for it . I mean if you use the external drive on a older computer that doesn't have 3.0 ports it would probably will require a driver for it . I have a external one which is 2.0 usb and it works on all that I try it on
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 7,871
    Windows 11 Pro 64 bit
       #4

    The external drive will function just the same way as an internal one. You need to enter the BIOS boot options to select the DVD drive as the boot device.

    I have to disable secure boot and connect the DVD drive to an Intel USB port to be able to boot from a DVD on my desktop PC.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 14
    Windows 7
       #5

    Yes external CD-DVD/RW drive works same as internal drives, if you want to boot your system and burn dvd then external dvd drive is the best solution for your problem, for this you need to go to bios and check what options are there, make your external dvd to your first boot device.
      My Computer


 

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