Don't you just love all those computer abbreviations? This will help you
out:
ROM means 'read only memory'. The key part of that is "read only". A CD-ROM
or a DVD-ROM is a CD or DVD that can be read, but not written to. A standard
music CD or a movie on DVD are examples of disks that can be read only, but
not written to.
A CD-ROM drive is a drive that can read CDs, but cannot write CDs. Same
thing with a DVD-ROM drove. In advertising, the word "drive" is often left
off.
Are you with me so far? It's about to get interesting.
A CD-R is a CD that can be written to once only. A CD-RW is a CD that can be
erased and re-written ("RW"), up to 1,000 times. Any drive that can write to
a CD-RW can also write to a CD-R. (But not vice versa.) And any drive that
can write to a CD can read a CD. Same thing with DVD-R and DVD-RW.
So here goes:
1) A "CD-RW/DVD-ROM" drive can write to CD-Rs and CD-RWs and can read CDs.
In addition, it can read DVDs, but not write to them. Obviously, combo means
'combined' and 'integrated' is stuck in there for people who think combo is
something you do to your hair.
2) A "DVD-RW" drive can write to DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs and can read DVDs. But
any drive that can write and read DVDs can also write and read CDs. So a
DVD-RW drive does it all.
