Physical disc drives are going the way of the dodo. Modern laptops — and even many modern desktop PCs — are dropping disc drives. If you still have discs with software, music, videos, or anything else on them, there are still ways to use them.
Your options range from purchasing an external drive you can plug in via USB when you need the discs to converting those discs to digital formats so you can access them on demand. It’s up to you.
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Get an External Disc Drive
Purchase an external disc drive that plugs in via USB and you can use discs the old-fashioned way. These are fairly inexpensive. Search Amazon, for example, and you’ll see options ranging from $12 drives that can read DVDs and CDs as well as burn CDs, to $25 options that can burn DVDs, too. Blu-ray-capable drives are a bit expensive, starting at around $37.
Once you’ve purchased one, just plug it in via USB, insert a disc, and you’re done. You only have to plug in the drive while using a disc, so you can share the same USB disc drive among multiple computers and use it for your future computers, too.
Create ISO Files and Use Virtual Discs
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If you’re dealing with software CDs, you can create ISO files from them and use those ISO files whenever you need to install the software. This is useful for old PC software discs — games, for example — especially ones that need to be inserted for the game to be playable.
There are many tools you can use to create ISO files on Windows, including InfraRecorder. Once you install it, you can insert a disc, right-click it, and select “Create image from CD/DVD.” This will create an ISO file. Since Windows 8, Windows has allowed you to “mount” ISOs (and IMG files) as virtual discs by double-clicking them. You can then use them as if they were inserted in your computer.
Once you have an ISO file, you can unplug your external disc drive or move it to another computer without a disc drive.
Rip Audio CDs
RELATED:How to Rip Audio CDs to Your PC or Mac
You can rip your audio CDs to create digital music files in MP3, AAC, FLAC, or another format and listen to those rather than rely on the physical discs themselves. Ripping CDs is fairly simple, and you can use iTunes or a more advanced program like EAC to do it.
Once you’re done, move those digital music files to the computer without the disc drive — or upload them to a free music-streaming service like Google Play Music so you can stream them from anywhere.
External Disc Reader For Mac
Rip DVD or Blu-ray Movies
RELATED:How to Rip Blu-Ray Discs With MakeMKV and Handbrake
DVDs and Blu-ray movies are harder to rip to digital video files thanks to their copyright protection. DVDs are much easier to rip using a wide variety of programs while Blu-ray discs can only be ripped using a few programs.
This only applies to commercial video discs, of course — if you’ve burned home videos to a DVD or Blu-ray disc, it’s easy to rip them because there’s no copy-protection.
These videos can be ripped using a variety of programs, but you’ll need to ensure your program of choice has a way to bypass that obnoxious copy-protection. You’ll probably want to encode those videos to another format, creating a smaller file so they won’t take as much space on your internal drive, too.
Access a Disc Drive Over the Network
It’s also possible to access a disc drive over the network by sharing it as a network share. If you have a computer with a disc drive on the same network as your computer without a disc drive, you can share that disc drive over the network.
Mac OS X provides a “remote disc sharing” feature, while it’s possible to share discs over the network on Windows, too. However, this won’t work with all types of discs — software discs that use copy protection won’t function this way, for example. Still, it’s worth a shot for accessing those files over the network without copying them to a drive or making an ISO file first.
Consider avoiding physical media in the future and going digital to reduce your need to bother with discs. For example, if you play old PC games that came on discs, you can often re-purchase them on GOG or Steam for a small amount of money — especially during sales — and install those instead of relying on your old physical discs.
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Apple’s MacBook Air, along with many other Macs, no longer includes an optical drive. But you can still use CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, and other optical discs on your Mac.
The tricks here are similar to how you’d access an optical drive on a Windows UltraBook or similar PC that doesn’t include an optical drive of its own.
Option 1: Get an External Drive
RELATED:How to Share CD & DVD Drives Over the Network on Windows
An external optical drive will allow you to access discs on your Mac. To do this, you’ll need to buy an external disc reader that plugs into your Mac via a USB cable. Such an external drive could read CDs and DVDs, play Blu-Rays, and even burn discs — if that’s what you want. You can leave a drive like this on your desk at home or take with you in your laptop bag.
Apple offers their own external drive known as the Apple USB SuperDrive. It plugs into a Mac via a USB cable and allows you to both read and write CDs and DVDs. It doesn’t have Blu-Ray support, so you’ll need to find another external drive if you care about that. Apple’s isn’t the only option — you can also buy third-party ones, and you’ll find many of them on Amazon and elsewhere.
If you have multiple Macs, such an external drive will allow you to plug it into any Mac you’re using, getting the benefits of optical disc support when you actually need it.
Option 2: Use Remote Disc Sharing
Luckily, it’s possible to use discs without buying an external drive thanks to the built-in Remote Disc feature. A Mac or Windows PC on your network can function as a server, and your Mac can access discs inserted into that server. The appropriate server software is included on a Mac, so you’ll just have to enable it. Apple also provides free remote disc server software for Windows PCs. As long as you have another computer with an optical drive on your network, you can use its optical drive from your Mac.
Important Note: Apple notes that many types of discs won’t work with the Remote Disc feature. This includes DVD movies, audio CDs, copy-protected discs, operating system installation discs, and blank discs you want to burn to. In other words, this feature only allows you to access the files on a data disc over a network from within Mac OS X. You’ll need an external drive to do anything else.
First, you’ll need to set up the server on a remote computer with a disc drive. Assuming the computer with a disc drive you want to share is a Mac, click the Apple menu, click System Preferences, and click the Sharing icon. Activate the “DVD and CD Sharing” option in the Sharing list. (This option will only be visible if your Mac has an optical drive.)
If it’s a Windows PC, you’ll need to download and install the DVD & CD Sharing Update for Windows from Apple’s website. After you have, open the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and then click DVD or CD Sharing Options. Check the “Enable DVD or CD Sharing” box here.
Once you’ve enable the remote disc sharing on either a Mac or Windows computer, you can open the Finder on your Mac without a disc drive. Click the “Remote Disc” option under Devices in the sidebar and you’ll see any Mac or Windows PC sharing a disc on your network. Depending on your settings, you may have to agree to a request on the remote PC before you can access its disc.
Be sure to insert the disc into the remote drive before you try to access it!
If You Don’t See the Remote Disc
If you don’t see the Remote Disc option, ensure both computers are on the same local network. Firewall settings could also prevent remote-disc sharing from functioning. On your router, ensure no kind of “isolation” feature is enabled that will prevent the computers from communicating.
If you’re sharing a disc from a Mac, open the System Preferences window, click the Security & Privacy icon, and click the Firewall tab. Ensure the firewall is off, or — if it’s enabled — head into it settings and ensure the remote-disc sharing service is allowed through the firewall.
If you’re sharing a disc from a Windows PC, ensure both the “ODSAgent” and “RemoteInstallMacOSX” processes are allowed through your firewall. This should automatically be configured with the default Windows Firewall, but you may need to configure it manually if you’re using third-party firewall software.
Remote disc sharing may not be perfect, but sharing a disc over the network has the same limitations on Windows. You’ll need to purchase an external disc drive and connect it directly to a Mac or Windows PC without an optical drive if you want all the features an optical drive offers.
Image Credit: bfishadow on Flickr, renatomitra on Flickr
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