optical disk Last modified: Monday, September 20, 2004
A storage medium from which data is read and to which it is written by lasers. Optical disks can store much more data -- up to 6 gigabytes (6 billion bytes) -- than most portable magnetic media, such as floppies. There are three basic types of optical disks: CD-ROM : Like audio CDs, CD-ROMs come with data already encoded onto them. The data is permanent and can be read any number of times, but CD-ROMs cannot be modified. WORM : Stands for write-once, read -many. With a WORM disk drive, you can write data onto a WORM disk, but only once. After that, the WORM disk behaves just like a CD-ROM. erasable: Optical disks that can be erased and loaded with new data, just like magnetic disks. These are often referred to as EO (erasable optical) disks. These three technologies are not compatible with one another; each requires a different type of disk drive and disk. Even within one category, there are many competing formats, although CD-ROMs are relatively standardized.
•E-mail this definition to a colleague• For internet.com pages about optical disk . Also check out the following links! DISK/TREND market research site  Provides market research on rigid, flexible and optical disk drives, disk drive arrays, disk autochangers and flash memory cards. Also provided are research summaries and over 200 links to manufacturing, educational and government organizations concerned with data storage.	CD-ROMs Lasers Peripheral Devices areal density CD-I (Compact Disc-Interactive) CD-ROM compact disc disk erasable optical disk ETOM mass storage MO multitasking phase change disk ROM worm Give Us Your Feedback Shopping optical disk Products Compare Products,Prices and Stores Shop by Category: Removable Media 181 Model Matches CD ROM Drives 125 Model Matches Zip and Other Drives 85 Model Matches DVD Players 194 Model Matches