The Basics:  CD-RW Drives

CD-RW drives are slowly but steadily becoming legacy devices, as DVD writers can do everything that CD-RW drives can do and then some. However, many new desktop computers and most new portable computers still ship with CD-RW drives by default, with DVD writers offered as an optional upgrade. This is with good reason, because unless you are a hard-core home video maven, you can probably still accomplish all your disc-burning needs with a CD-RW drive.

The "RW" in the name stands for rewriteable, but these drives burn to recordable as well as rewriteable media. When optical media burning was in its infancy, it was common to see drives that could only copy to write-once media (called CD-R drives, after the name of the recordable discs). However, as CD-RW media became more mainstream, CD-RW drives' popularity exploded and CD-R drives faded away.

When looking at CD-RW drive specifications, you'll see a series of three numbers, such as 48X/32X/48X. These denote a drive's reading and writing speeds. The first number is the drive's burn speed to CD-R media, the second shows the drive's burn speed to CD-RW and the third number indicates how fast the drive can read from CD-ROM.

The X represents 150 kilobytes per second (kbps), so the drive in our example can burn data to CD-R and read from CD-ROM at 48 times 150kbps, or 7.2 megabytes per second. The fastest drives on the market write at speeds of up to 52X, so they can burn an entire blank CD in minutes. Rewriteable speeds max out at 32X, but at this pace, full rewrites can still be performed in short order.

As we mentioned, CD-R media can be written to only once, but it can be read by a vast majority of optical drives. In fact, one of the most common uses of CD-RW drives is to burn audio CD for playback in most (but not all!) car and home CD players. CD-R has become quite inexpensive, with blank discs costing only a few cents each when purchased in bulk.

In contrast, CD-RW media can be written and rewritten up to 1,000 times per disc. However, these discs can only be read in other CD-RW drives or in DVD writers, as well as car and home players specifically designed to handle them. On the other hand, you can treat CD-RW like CD-R and permanently burn them. You won't be able to write to them anymore, but they will play in most traditional CD players. CD-RW media has also dropped considerably in price over the years, but these discs are still more expensive than CD-R and are mainly used for backups.

Both CD-R and CD-RW discs have a storage capacity of 700MB, which is approximately 500 floppy disks. When you're creating an audio CD, this works out to be about 80 minutes of music. You can also create video CD (VCD) -- putting home movies and other video files on CD-R -- but the quality is much lower than that of a DVD. In contrast to CD storage, standard DVD can house up to 4.7GB, or close to seven CD, on a single disc, while the newer Dual Layer DVD can store up to 8.5GB per disc.

There haven't been many new technologies developed for CD recording in the past few years, but one that really stands out is Hewlett-Packard's LightScribe. Available for both CD-RW drives and DVD writers, LightScribe allows optical drives to imprint silkscreen-quality labels on the surface of special media. After your normal CD burn, simply flip the disc over in the drive and an internal laser etches in a detailed label of your design.

LightScribe media is more expensive than traditional media, and the technology currently allows for only monochromatic labeling. It can also take quite a while to complete the imprint of the label, but the text and images of the end result appear quite sharp. If you burn a lot of media that gets shared with business colleagues or family members, LightScribe labeling is a handy way to create professional-looking CD. It certainly beats using a marker or printing stick-on labels with your inkjet printer.

How to Shop

CD-RW drives have become quite inexpensive. You'll likely get one with a new or used desktop or portable computer, but you may find a reason to pick up a CD-RW drive on its own.

For less than $30, you can find internal drives that burn at the fastest speeds on the market (52X/32X/52X). These drives connect to your system via an IDE cable and require you to open up your computer cabinet for installation in a drive bay. However, this is not your only CD-RW drive option.

For example, you can get an external CD-RW drive that connects to your PC via USB or FireWire cable. This lets you add CD burning to older systems without having to open them up. You can also move an external drive from system to system, which is a handy way to share burning capabilities in a small office. External CD-RW drives are much easier to install than internal drives, but they are also more expensive.

Another option is to choose a CD-RW drive combined with a DVD-ROM drive. These combination drives are most often seen in portable computers, but they are available as internal and external desktop drives as well. Combo drives handle all the burns of traditional CD-RW drives, and they can also play DVD movies. This is a smart option for portable computers and smaller systems that don't have extra drive bays.

You can also choose a LightScribe-equipped CD-RW drive. Most Hewlett-Packard drives come with this capability, and HP has licensed the technology to other manufacturers, so you have a variety of models from which to select. LightScribe drives are more expensive than standard CD-RW drives, as is the media, but this option is worth your while if you do a lot of disc labeling.

Make sure to check the software bundle that comes with a CD-RW drive. Most drives include burning software, but if you're running Windows XP, you can use the burning tools within the operating system. Ahead Software's Nero is one of the better applications on the market. Some vendors include multimedia players, especially with combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drives. Music organization and management software is also common, so shop around to get the best bundle.

Some OEM (original equipment manufacturer) CD-RW drives don't ship with anything other than the drive itself. These "bare-bones" drives can be a great bargain, but make sure you have all the necessary cabling and software to get your CD-RW drive up and running.

Most users in the market for an optical drive will want to consider a DVD writer. However, CD-RW drives still have their place if you don't need or want to burn to DVD. CD-RW drives are less expensive (as is their media), they work well with older systems and they're available in a variety of formats to meet your storage and entertainment needs.