Reference number: CH001166

Can a DVD drive also burn DVD discs?

Question:

Can a DVD drive also burn DVD discs?

Answer:

No. The only drive capable of creating a DVD disc would be a DVD-R, DVD+R, or DVD+-RW drive. A traditional DVD drive is only capable of reading DVD discs, but not writing to them.

If you're unsure if your computer has a DVD burner, or drive capable of writing DVD discs a quick and easy method of determining what type of drive you have, would be to open Device Manager and look under the DVD/CD-ROM drives area. The example picture to the right shows two different types of drives capable of writing to a DVD disc. Additional information about getting into Device Manager can be found on document CH000833.

Additional information:

• See our DVD and DVD-R dictionary definition for additional information about this term and related terms.