Do sloted cd reader scratch your cd? AND Do you really need two optical drives?

[metomeya]

Okay most high end computer always come with two optical drives. A dvd and a cd-rom burner.

But do you really need it if you have a optical drive that does both? Is optical drive failure common enough to worry about it?

I'm considering the following http://plextor.com/english/products/716AL.htm

I don't know if i'm going to get the tray or slotted version.


Also, you ever hear of a slotted optical reader scratching your cd/dvd when you put it in?

A friend of me was telling me that if i got it, it was going to scratch up my cds and dvds. He also said that the reason you see them in car is cause music cds have more memory so scratches don't affect them as much. I think it was bs and he was being a jerk that day. But i thought I would ask to be on the safe side.

[EMT]

You don't need two optical drives. What they're best for is having 2 CDs in at once (e.g. when you need to duplicate, or you want to change CDs out less). But you can still duplicate via the hard drive with just one CD drive.

Music CDs are more susceptible to error (they don't have any checksums -> more actual data can fit but errors will go undetected); however data CDs have more problems if an error does occur. I don't know about slot drives, they might make scratches a little more likely... also, they don't have manual eject buttons do they?

[metomeya]

I don't know but someone on another forum said he has the same model and no problem he just complained about the price

[godzilla525]

Well if I didn't have two drives I'd be screwed. I have a few CDs where the outer tracks are almost completely unreadable in the DVD-ROM but work perfectly in the CD-RW. However, the DVD-ROM is an older unit that doesn't cache audio data, permitting it to work faster with Exact Audio Copy.

I remember a few years ago everyone was going ga-ga over Pioneer slot-load DVD-ROM drives. (Where are they now?) The big worry I have with slot-loaders is what happens when you try to put a 3" disc in. (Anyone know?)

I also have two drives in my laptop (Dell I8200). The DVD-ROM in that got flaky and then finally refused to work so the only way in or out was the CD-RW until I got a replacment. (Stupid thing too... the Kapton ribbon wire from the head made a poor connection with the socket).

Both drives never get along with EAC very well :/ Secure mode is slow and the CD-RW only works in burst mode... I often end up using a THIRD drive over firewire...