does a cd laser lens cleaner disc work for external dvd drive?

[yogirlalyssa]

i just got a tdk cd laser lens cleaner disc. i am wondering..... will it work with my external dvd drive, or will the cd destroy it if left in there for long periods of time?

 

[SylverReZ]

A lens cleaner won't do much for removing any dirt from the laser lens if its stuck on there. Instead, use Q-Tips and 99.9% isopropyl alcohol, just be careful not to put a lot of pressure on the lens, as this may damage it. If it struggles to read discs further, then it might be time to replace the disc drive altogether, after all they're super cheap to pick up because nobody uses them anymore.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Lens cleaning discs with a tiny brush glued on don't do much. They might remove some dust, but not any sticky layer on the lens.
I've cleaned a fat PS2 screamed "CIGARETTE SMOKE" when coming near the thing. Gently cleaning isopropyl made the lens transparent again and resulted in a dark(!) brown(!) Q-Tip. No way a cleaning disc would have revived that poor drive. That said, I've never heard of any damage caused by a cleaning disc.

Slim drives, like common for external nowadays, are especially easy since you don't have to disassemble them to get to the lens.

 

[SylverReZ]

Lens cleaning discs with a tiny brush glued on don't do much. They might remove some dust, but not any sticky layer on the lens.
I've cleaned a fat PS2 screamed "CIGARETTE SMOKE" when coming near the thing. Gently cleaning isopropyl made the lens transparent again and resulted in a dark(!) brown(!) Q-Tip. No way a cleaning disc would have revived that poor drive. That said, I've never heard of any damage caused by a cleaning disc.

Slim drives, like common for external nowadays, are especially easy since you don't have to disassemble them to get to the lens.

I don't really like slimline drives in todays age. Burning DVDs and CDs with them have a tendancy to be really poor and can result in the forbidden 'donut rings' (darker and brighter rings burned to the disc, of which this may cause read errors upon playback). I do recommend using one of the better quality drives like LG, LiteOn, or Plextor, depending on your preference with the use of an IDE drive caddy with USB connectivity.

 

[yogirlalyssa]

I don't really like slimline drives in todays age. Burning DVDs and CDs with them have a tendancy to be really poor and can result in the forbidden 'donut rings' (darker and brighter rings burned to the disc, of which this may cause read errors upon playback). I do recommend using one of the better quality drives like LG, LiteOn, or Plextor, depending on your preference with the use of an IDE drive caddy with USB connectivity.

on almost every single computer, the dvd drive that is already on the computer it like takes forever to read. so most people have external dvd drives nowadays. but what i dont have is vlc. (ya mean, THE CONE) vlc can play almost ANYTHING. uncanny, right?

 

[SylverReZ]

on almost every single computer, the dvd drive that is already on the computer it like takes forever to read. so most people have external dvd drives nowadays. but what i dont have is vlc. (ya mean, THE CONE) vlc can play almost ANYTHING. uncanny, right?

Must be down to the drive failing overtime. Maybe its a good idea to replace it if after cleaning it doesn't read the disc.
VLC can be downloaded from the official VideoLan site here: https://www.videolan.org/

 

[yogirlalyssa]

Must be down to the drive failing overtime. Maybe its a good idea to replace it if after cleaning it doesn't read the disc.
VLC can be downloaded from the official VideoLan site here: https://www.videolan.org/

not an extreme amount of dust, my external dvd drive still reads discs. but i bought it because u know, i don't want one of my discs stuck in drive E when it stops working!

 

[KleinesSinchen]

on almost every single computer, the dvd drive that is already on the computer it like takes forever to read.

Just a moment. There are multiple things that can take "forever" here. Disc detection and disc dumping/fully reading.

Depending on what "forever" means here the cause can be bad drive, bad disc or simply riplock. Generally a full-sized DVD drive in a working desktop computer will read a full good condition single layer DVD in 5 minutes CAV mode 6.4x to 16x speed.
Dual layer discs are harder to read and have slightly lower maximum speed of 4.8x to 12x (and 12x to 4.8x for the second layer). With almost twice as much data and lower read speed dumping dual layer discs takes considerably more time.

Slim line drives reach half that speed at best.

Now to riplock:
These speeds are only reached for unprotected DVDs (which rules out about 99% of all commercial video discs). Most drives impose artificial limits when encountering a CSS video DVD. Officially this is used to suppress noise. The real use for this is more likely aggravating people trying to dump a huge number of video discs.

not an extreme amount of dust, my external dvd drive still reads discs. but i bought it because u know, i don't want one of my discs stuck in drive E when it stops working!

Did you ever notice the eject hole on optical drives?
A bent paper clip can be used to open drives by pushing the mechanism inside. Depending on the drive model it might require some(!) force. Don't use that function without reason. It's not good to do it just for fun.

 

[urherenow]

on almost every single computer, the dvd drive that is already on the computer

Huh? When's the last time you went shopping for a computer? They don't come with an optical drive anymore. My computer case is pricey, and doesn't even have a way to install an internal optical drive (in the front, anyway...).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

on almost every single computer, the dvd drive that is already on the computer it like takes forever to read. so most people have external dvd drives nowadays. but what i dont have is vlc. (ya mean, THE CONE) vlc can play almost ANYTHING. uncanny, right?

Don't know what year you're living in, but almost nobody even has internal DVD drives anymore.

i just got a tdk cd laser lens cleaner disc. i am wondering..... will it work with my external dvd drive, or will the cd destroy it if left in there for long periods of time?

Why would it? DVD drives can read CDs just fine and there isn't anything fundamentally different about an external drive compared to an internal one.
How well it works is another matter.

not an extreme amount of dust, my external dvd drive still reads discs. but i bought it because u know, i don't want one of my discs stuck in drive E when it stops working!

Full size CD/DVD drives have a small hole you can stick a needle into to force the drive to eject. At least, every single one I've ever seen has had it.
I don't think slimline drives commonly have this though, so it would actually be harder to eject the disc from a failed slimline drive.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

My computer case is pricey, and doesn't even have a way to install an internal optical drive

Don't know what year you're living in, but almost nobody even has internal DVD drives anymore.

I've noticed such and hate it .
Hopefully I will find a case that supports drives in 2027 when my PC will probably be replaced. Else the old case will be used again.
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
LOL. LMAO. ROFL. "Who uses discs in [yeardate]?!" [Some more arrogant and smug comments go here to make fun of people like me]

I need a proper (full-sized) BDXL drive for cold storage. As long there is no equally robust replacement for this there is no way around it.
========

Anyway, almost all drives, including those slimline garbage, can be opened with the paperclip method. A bit harder for slot loading drives. Some require tedious disassembly, some allow for a boring session of turning a mechanical part with a flat head screwdriver for slowly ejecting the disc in manual way.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I've noticed such and hate it .
Hopefully I will find a case that supports drives in 2027 when my PC will probably be replaced. Else the old case will be used again.
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
LOL. LMAO. ROFL. "Who uses discs in [yeardate]?!" [Some more arrogant and smug comments go here to make fun of people like me]

I need a proper (full-sized) BDXL drive for cold storage. As long there is no equally robust replacement for this there is no way around it.
========

Anyway, almost all drives, including those slimline garbage, can be opened with the paperclip method. A bit harder for slot loading drives. Some require tedious disassembly, some allow for a boring session of turning a mechanical part with a flat head screwdriver for slowly ejecting the disc in manual way.

You can fairly easily find cases with 5.25" bays. They're not very common, but they're still being sold at online retailers.
The more common use for them these days is for extra 3.5" HDD bays for NAS or server use (which is how I came across them), which begs the question why manufacturers don't just change the 5.25" bays out for more 3.5" bays. I guess they still have their niche.

Honestly, I wish I still had a DVD drive sometimes, cause every time I need to install an OS or I need a bootable disk for something else, I need to dig up a flash drive, and flash the image to it, since I use flash drives for other stuff, so they're never in the same place and I always overwrite whatever image I had on there with something else. It was easier when I just had to burn a Windows installer to DVD once, and use that disc whenever I needed to install or reinstall.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

It was easier when I just had to burn a Windows installer to DVD once, and use that disc whenever I needed to install or reinstall.

Spoiler: Guess what I did a few days ago.

I was so sick of the memory card stuff that gets overwritten any time that I went the old way and created a DVD with Win10). That thing is easily found and won't get overwritten. If anybody asks me to install Windows, I'll just use the external drive and call it a day.
Installing will be slow, but you don't have to prepare anything