More Information on ICS Equipment
CD-ROM drive:
CD ROM stands for Compact Disk Read-Only Memory. CD ROMs store and read massive amounts of information on a removable compact disk or solid state storage medium. ICS Wohlers Hall Computing Site is equipped with CD-ROM drives. Remember the majority CD-RW disks are unreadable from a CD-ROM drive. Also, clients can not burn CDs or watch DVDs on machines with only CD-ROM drives.
CD-RW drive:
CD-RW stands for Compact Disk-ReWritable. CD-RW disks are capable of holding at least 750 MB of data. Unlike a read-only disk, CD-RW is an active storage medium, allowing repeated data additions. A CD-RW drive can read both CD-R and CD-RW and write to CD-RW disks. CD Burning software is accessible at the ICS Computing Sites. Remember clients can not watch DVDs on machines with only CD-RW drives.
CD-RW/DVD drive:
CD-RW/DVD stands for Compact Disk-ReWritable/Digital Video Disk. DVDs hold far more information than the CD-ROMs that are used for storing music files. A DVD can hold a minimum of 4.7 GB, enough for a full-length movie. MPEG-2 is used to compress video data for storage on a DVD. DVD drives are backward-compatible and can play CD-ROMs. Also this type of drive has CD-RW capabilities. CD Burning and DVD viewing software is accessible at the ICS Computing Sites. Remember clients can not burn DVDs on machines with only CD-RW/DVD drives.
DVD-RW drive:
DVD-RW stands for Digital Video Disk-ReWritable. DVDs hold far more information than the CD-ROMs that are used for storing music files. A DVD can hold a minimum of 4.7 GB, enough for a full-length movie. MPEG-2 is used to compress video data for storage on a DVD. DVD drives are backward-compatible and can play CD-ROMs. This type of drive is capable of reading CDs and DVDs, and is also capable of writing to both CD-R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs.
Iomega Zip 250 Drive:
A high-capacity floppy disk drive developed by Iomega Corporation. Zip disks are larger than conventional floppy disks, and about twice as thick. Zip disk are more durable than floppy disks hence why they have become a popular media for backing up hard disks and for transporting large files. They can hold 100 or 250 MB of data. However, technology changes and zip disks have become a relatively expensive type of media. As a result only the ICS Computing Sites at Illini Union, Nevada, Oregon and Wohlers Hall are equipped with zip drives. Remember Zip 250 drives are backward-compatible so both Zip 100 and Zip 250 disks can be inserted into an Iomega Zip 250 Drive. Do not attempt to insert a 3.5 floppy disks in the zip drive.
USB flash memory (thumb) drives:
USB is an acronym for Universal Serial Bus, a plug-and-play interface between a computer and peripheral devices, such as a mouse, digital camera, scanner or thumb drive. USB devices can be added to and removed from the computer without having to reboot the computer. The USB ThumbDrive combines flash memory technologies with the ubiquitous USB connection to create a self-contained drive and media package the size of a thumb. It plugs directly into the USB port of any computer and can store virtually any digital data from documents, and presentations, to music and photos. All ICS Computing Sites are equipped with USB ports. Clients can plug their USB flash memory drives into the gray extension USB cable or directly into the USB port on the machine.
A USB connector (shown to the left) can plug into USB ports.
USB devices (shown above) can also plug into USB ports.
Two USB ports are conveniently located on the iMac keyboard (shown above).