External CD drive is a hardware component that is used to read or write optical discs such as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs outside a computer. External CD drives come in a variety of form factors, including desktop drives, laptop drives, and portable drives.

External CD drives typically use USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt interfaces to connect to a computer. However, some drives use an S-Video or composite video connector. External CD drives are powered by the computer’s USB port, so no external power supply is required.

Most external CD drives can read and write all common optical disc formats. However, …