Transcription: A CD-ROM drive lets you use removable optical disks that contain as much as 650 megabytes of data. Unlike a hard disk or floppy, which read and write data magnetically, data is written to a CD-ROM with a laser beam, and most CD drives cannot write new data to disk. That's why they're called CD-ROM for compact disk read-only memory. A CD-ROM drive is an essential part of a multimedia PC. Plus, With the right software, you can also use it to play music CDs. Maestro, a little rock with my spreadsheets, if you please.