Thinkpads Forum

Guys,

When I bought my T60 - 1953E4U, for optical device :

- I chose the option - "ThinkPad 8x Max DVD Recordable Dual Layer Ultrabay Slim Drive"
- I talked to a rep and placed the order through her. Told her about the optical drive that I wanted (mentioned above). When she sent me the quote it showed this -
"1 41N5552 CTO TP CD-RW/DVD-R MULTI 8X MAX ULTRABAY SLIM "

Feeks weeks have past, I did not use my DVD drive, and today I noticed that in Windows Explorer DVD drive is marked as "DVD-RAM Drive"

As far as I understand, one cannot burn DVDs using a DVD-RAM drive. So, I wanted a DVD burner drive, and (did) I get a DVD reader drive!

What do you guys think about this? Am I missing something?


On my ultrabay slim I can see "DVD Multi Recordable" written on the front.

You have the correct drive. IBM's. It shows up as "DVD-RAM" because the drive supports writing files to it without "finalizing" the disc.

Rest easy. Your DVD-RAM can both read and write DVD's.

Should anyway. Pop a -r in and see if you can burn to it.

You sure it's DVD-RAM and not DVD-ROM?

Either way, -RAM is a burnable standard, so you're fine.

Would seem that you would try to burn something before posting to find out if you can indeed burn. But i agree with the posts above, you have the right drive.

Usually a DVD-RAM drive is also able to burn DVD+R and/or DVD-R media.

But not all DVD-R/DVD+R-drives can burn DVD-RAMs.

As the sector-based DVD-RAM is reliable for backup purposes I used it very often to copy backup data on the rewritable DVD-RAMs by an external drive. So I appreciate that the DVD-burner in my new thinkpad is also DVD-RAM capable.

Thanks all for your responses!

@stephenaron, the reason I did not try was because I did not have a blank DVD in my drawer, and I did not want to spend any money on DVDs unless I know that my laptop would be able to burn those DVDs.

Friends, thanks again for the answer!