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:
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.
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