A usb cd/dvd/bluray drive is like $20 on amazon, nothing stopping you.
this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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You can even get ones with spicy firmware for extra flavour that lets you back up your physical media (where allowed by law, of course... Naturally)
Do you need special firmwares to run a dd command on Linux?
I'd imagine that could make a backup of the whole disk, but it can't decrypt it
I just flashed the firmware and used makemkv (when I was using windows...) I'm sure there's a better FOSS way but I haven't explored it since moving to linux
makemkv on linux for DVDs. abcde for CDs. dd of=game.iso for games.
I used to have pretty good luck with mplayer -dumpstream for DVDs, but its success rate started dropping a few years ago and I switched to makemkv.
No magic firmware required.
You do need magic firmware for BluRays.
Untrue. You can rip standard Blu-ray movies using MakeMKV with factory firmware. You do need special firmware to rip UHD Blu-rays unless you have a certain drive with older unpatched firmware. Also, Blu-ray data discs work as you would hope.
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When I was in the market for one a few years ago, an internal drive and a USB enclosure was a safer bet for making backups than a USB drive. It's usually not too hard to find out the recommended drives for the backup software.
Just a heads up-
Asus' USB DVD drives 'with USB-C' are not USB-C, they have a crappy MicroUSB to USB-C cable included in the box.
So if you wanted one with USB-C on the device- DO NOT BUY ASUS.
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Plus, you might also need to spin up virtualbox with a windows 95 iso.
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I have an external cd drive that I plug in via USB for this purpose. Tech ain't limiting you.
Been moving the same DVD-RW drive to every new computer for like 20 years. I'll be able to read Mechwarrior 2 until I die.
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They sell the drive as a USB item, buy one of those and enjoy.
I picked up a lil usb dvd drive years ago
Don't use it much but it waits ready in the tech closet. Cost like $20.
I have one that's mostly broken, which isn't a surprise as I took it from e-waste.
When I tried to burn a disc with it, it suddenly started accelerating out of control and I had to kill the power to it. It almost shattered the disc:
Clearly that wasn't burning it quite well.
But there's another interesting thing. It won't read CDs. Except, somehow, VLC manages to get something out of it. It's earrape, and the recording from VLC ends up corrupted, but FFMPEG can still process it as raw audio (and so can aplay).
Here's a sample:
https://files.catbox.moe/bkwt82.flac
Audio should embed on desktop:
… I kind of like that actually.
Raw blackened pop-punk.
It's a shame you haven't got more of it :D
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I have a CD drive you can plug into your computer for CDs.
Currently rocking an internal blu ray drive and external floppy one (only because I couldn't find an internal one), I can't possibly imagine not having an optical drive on my computers. I still own a lot of disks including software and movies, I won't just throw everything away because the tech is now deemed obsolete (which is debatable on top of that, currently have a better quality on blu ray than on streaming platforms, plus no ads and works offline) If only it were easier to install multi-disk software through wine/proton though...
Yeah I'm increasingly convinced the "Nobody uses discs anymore" thing is a coordinated manipulation campaign by rent-seeking streaming media giants...
I wouldn't go that far, my external media drives really don't get used as much it used to, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that people still using discs are now very uncommon anyway. Doesn't help that the blu-rays are still worse than piracy convenience wise due to the several layers of drm to bypass to be allowed to read a disc I own on hardware I own with software I also own...
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Look up your old favourite games. A lot of them have communities that have kept them updated so they’re playable on modern hardware as long as you have a (totally legal) ISO or disc in your possession.
For example, Project Magma has been keeping Myth The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter going for 25+ years now.
I loved this game back when Bungie was a Mac-only developer and it holds up pretty well with a couple graphics mods in addition to the work Project Magma has done.
I currently have 4 old Thinkpad T420s (nice) set up just to run this game on Linux with some friends around the kitchen table.
LibreQuake is another one. I’m not as familiar with what they’ve been up to, as I never had a computer that could run Quake in its heyday, so it doesn’t hold the same nostalgia for me. That said, I appreciate their work anyway.
OpenRA keeps Command & Conquer and its various sequels and spin-offs alive, including Dune 2000. Combined Arms is especially fun; a version that includes all the armies from all the games.
I have a disc drive in my computer. I've still torrented games that I have on my shelf because its easier.
ive still got cds with programs that just wont even install on 10
If you have them installed, right click on the file and choose properties. There should be a compatibility tab that will let you choose an older version of windows to run it on. Also running as administrator can sometimes fix it too.
have tried that, from 98 thru 8
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Honestly, invest in a Blu-ray writer and pick up some decent 25gb discs.
Not only can you play old games, but you can archive data in a relatively stable format at a much lower price point.
I had read at one point many years ago that CD-Rs degrade over time and are not good for long term backups. Is this wrong or are Blurays different?
So, CD-Rs in particular are very bad with regards to stability because the thing you are writing too is a layer of dye. Some are better than others, but basically all will have that dye brake down and fade over time. The type of plastic in the disk as well, a few Japanese disc producers were notorious for using plastic that had a tendency to absorb moisture form the air that would rapidly cause the disks to degrade.
There are other methods of writing though. CD-RWs for instance are much more stable as instead of burning away a bit of volatile dye layer, they are writing to a layer of metal alloy by melting it a little to change it’s crystal structure.
The same is true with recordable blue rays, with Low to High disks using the same sort of dye burning as CD-Rs, High to Low disks use a variety of different mechanisms to write, but some use a similar melty metal as CD-RWs.
I basically haven't used my multiple external cd dvd drives in years, but i will not get rid of them for the just in case factor. Speaking of my father gave me a handful of live music cds he wanted me to rip so it will get some use very soon.
I've been slowly ripping boxes of cds for months and putting them on my media server. I don't know if there's a simpler way, but I've been using "abcde" (A Better CD Encoder) on Linux, and it's fairly straightforward.
That's the nice part about Linux, you rip the CD to an Iso file, and can directly Mount the ISO file as a drive.
I use Linux and think everyone else should, too... but Windows 11 also supports mounting iso files
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Steam allowed me to use the old security code for my physical copy of Medieval 2: Total War to allow me to download a digital copy updated to work on Windows 10.
Well, there's a decent chance someone already uploaded it to archive.org
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Blud, I have this problem. But with 3.5" floppy disks.
I ripped them 10 years ago. But prefer cracks; less hassle.
Cutely goes to the internet and download the game for free from there with hopefully no viruses
I have a blu-ray drive that got a lot of action at one point backing up movies. Now it just sits there sad and lifeless. This might be my inspiration to get that guy back in action.
You can get USB drives for a pittance.
Even back when my PC still had a disc drive, even compatibility mode wouldn't let it function
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