The full form of CD-RW is Compact Disc-ReWritable. It is Digital Optical disc format, this can be written,read,erased and can be rewritten.CD is a reflective metal disc which has an alloy that stores digital data, such as pictures, music, documents, etc.A CD-RW is scanned by a laser beam to read the data.It came in place of floppy disc and used as test disc,temporary backup files. They require specialized readers to play. The devices use sensitive laser optics.The CD RW is based on phase change technology mentioned in orange book III.
Compact Disc Rewritable is an optical disc format used to store erasable data.It follows Orange Book standard.
The first system to record digital information was developed by James T Russel, He used a transparent foil lighted from behind by a strong halogen lamp. The Evolution of Laser Disc Technology led to development of compact disc and A collaboration engineering project of Philips and Sony in 1979 was held for designing an Audio disc.Red Book CD- DA was published in 1980.The partnership studies by Philips and Sony also led to production of Disc players that are compatible.RW
An optical disc drive that can write discs has three lasers—a low-power laser that reads data, a medium-power laser that erases rewritable discs, and a high-power laser that burns data to a disc.A drive can read data by heating the alloy present in the underside of disc when heated above the melting point it turns opaque and stores data as spots. The reading laser in drive decodes this data.The drive uses the medium-powered erase laser to heat the alloy layer to its crystallization point and thereby erases the data.
Multi-Session Format:It can be formated or edited as different sessions and new data can be added or Individual data can be deleted from the disc.
Laser Phase Change Technology : Phase change technology is used to write in and erase the disc.Different strength laser beam is used to heat and melt the alloy in disc and feed data or erase.
Reusable: The data can be erased and the disc be reused.
Storage capacity: Considerably large amounts of data can be stored upto 700 mb.
Based on features they can be classified into different types as follows:
CD-ROM-Compact Disc Read Only Memory
CD-DA -Compact Disc-Digital Audio
CD-i Compact Disc-Interactive
CD-R -Recordable Compact Discs
CD-RW-Compact Disc Rewritable
VCD-Video CD
SVCD-Super Video CD
Enhanced Music CD
They are compatible and easy to use.
Data of about 700mb can be stored.
The data can be erased if required
The data can be written, read and rewritten.
It can be played on DVD- Player
Can Run and Play directly from disc without copying to system.
It has better speed than CD-Readable.
Easily accessed from Windows
Difficult to handle and store
Less Durable.
Require special players and disc burn programs.
May easily get damaged with any scratches and corrupts data.
It is costly than other CDs
Older CD players cannot play CD-R W.
It has become Outdated nowadays by the invention of USB pen drives.
CD -RW can store upto 70 mb or 80 minutes of data.
CD-RW can be read by special CD players that use laser technology.
CD RW is usually seen in 2 sizes 12 cm or 8 cm.
No, CD-R cannot be used to erase and rewrite data, while CD-RW has the option to erase and rewrite the data in disc.
The CD-Rw was developed by the technology team of Philips and Sony.