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What is a CD?

A CD (Compact Disk) is a small disk where data can be stored. To use a CD, you need a CD drive physically installed in your PC. CD's can only store a small amount of data (less than a gigabyte). Although they were commonly used in the past, CDs are rarely used nowadays, as the same amount of data can be more easily be transferred with USB sticks or even through the Internet.

A plastic disk with a rainbow-like reflection on it. Printed on it the words: Verbatim Velocity Pro CD-R.
A CD-R. Photo: abdallahh on Flickr. License: CC BY 2.0.

Caddy

Unlike floppy disks, CDs were inserted in CD drives directly. While they were not in use, they were placed inside caddies to protect their surface, which, if damaged, would make their data unreadable.

A plastic case labelled with an illustration of a video-game called Sim City 2000, next to a CD of similar size with a similar graphic printed on it.
A CD caddy of a game called Sim City 2000. Observe how the illustration on the caddy matches the illustration printed on the CD. Photo: Museum of Obsolete Media. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Written by Noel Santos.

About the Author

I'm a self-taught Brazilian programmer graduated in IT from a FATEC. In a world of increasingly complex and essential computers, I decided to use my technical expertise in hardware, desktop applications, and web technologies to create an informative resource to make PC's easier to understand.

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