Am i the only one who hates Slot-loading drives?

[galstaph]

i like the slot on my iBook, it works flawlessly, looks better than the tray as well. On the other hand, trays do have some advantages, but I think that when it comes to laptops, slot is the way to go, less moving parts to break (I broke the eject machanism on one of my PCs before by hitting it with my knee when it was open... you now have to pull the tray out manually as it *just* pops open [and push it closed as well]).

 

[Sdashiki]

Slot loading rox.

I bet you have one in your car....

I just never liked how the PowerBooks had their slot in the front, so that if you had it in your lap it couldnt come out without moving the laptop away from you.

I think my 12" had it on the side, which made more sense to me.

 

[crazycat]

Slot loading rox.

I bet you have one in your car....

I just never liked how the PowerBooks had their slot in the front, so that if you had it in your lap it couldnt come out without moving the laptop away from you.

I think my 12" had it on the side, which made more sense to me.

Yes i rather have it on the side since i use my laptop on my lap a lot. Your also right the 12" comes with the cd drive on the side.

 

[revfife]

The two PC laptops I have owned, both tray loading drives seem very flimsy and would break off easily. Sometimes I accidently hit the button and then by drive pops out. Slot loading drives are better imo.

 

[trogdor!]

In portables, slot loading drives are perfect for them. No tray that pops out along with all the critical components of the optical drive.

 

[Jackie.Cane]

I like the slot drives, I just hate that you can't use 3-inch CDs. Oh well.

 

[nbs2]

Would everybody feel better with a flip top like the Toughbooks? It would avoid the problems that people have with tray exposure and would still let you play your tiny CDs.

Although, I don't know how the mechanism works to open them (just seen pictures). And, I guess you still run the risk of the hinge failing...

 

[jsw]

I've never had a problem with a slot-loading drive, and I prefer the aesthetics.

Also, whenever I use a tray-loader, I am always afraid that the disk isn't in just right and that, while closing, the tray will either scratch the disk or get stuck.

Neither has ever happened to me, and yet the fear remains.

 

[Zoowatch]

tray loading drives seem to keep CDs / DVDs in good condition ... whereas slot-loading ones might scratch your disc quite easily.

 

[lu0s3r322]

i really have no preference because they arent that different in my opinion, but slot-loading looks the best and its easy to use

 

[Heb1228]

I hate tray-loading drives. They just remind me of my 1990's PCs.... bleh!

 

[mkrishnan]

The thing I've learned about slot loading drives is that you have to stick your disc in them hard. Just bang it in. They don't like it any other way. And also mine makes a lot of noise when it's reading and writing to my disc. And when I'm done, and I want to pull my disc back out, I have to hit the eject button several times, because they don't want to let go of it.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the Wasteland I go!™

But psssh, I still love Thinkpads. Even though slot loading is much, much, much better than trays.

 

[Josias]

There is one downpart, and two benefits on slotloading. Down part is no mini-discs (duh), and the advantages are no irritating drive coming out (risking being broken off), and you can make smaller computers with them. The PowerMacs are already big, so no point for slot-load, but all the others. wow. Excpet for the Sony Vaio, apple laptops are the only ones so thin and light.

 

[plinkoman]

i personally can't stand tray-loaders (well, on laptops anyway)

i can't tell you how much i love having this nice little slot on THE FRONT of my powerbook. it makes things so clean and easy. much better then crappy pc laptops which shoot a tray out the side of your laptop, and then you have to move stuff to get to it... it's just annoying, and a tray on the front would look like *****.

 

[mmmcheese]

...Down part is no mini-discs (duh),...

This is not entirely true...most drives aren't made to take the smaller discs as well (makes them more expensive), but there's no reason why they can't accept both. The next Nintendo console is slot loading, and it supports both the new DVD sized game discs and the older GameCube discs which are much smaller.

For the most part though...yeah, slot loading drives can't take smaller discs.

 

[QuarterSwede]

I prefer slot loading but I've had bad experiences with both.

I once had a tray loader that refused to come back out even once rebooted. Plus the emergency opener didn't want to work so I was stuck having to use a screw driver to open it. It never worked the same after that (didn't burn half the time and the tray made a lot more noise moving).

Of course I also had a Pioneer head unit in my car fail and had to ship it off to a repair center (cost me $120) just to get the disc out and repair the drive.

The main problem with slot loading is that they only accept standard CD's and DVD's. Any hybrids give problems. My 12" PB won't read DualDiscs and has problems ejecting SACD hybrids. Basically, any disc that is thicker than a regular CD or DVD, will have some sort of problem.

So, bad things for both.

 

[eva01]

I've never had a problem with a slot-loading drive, and I prefer the aesthetics.

Also, whenever I use a tray-loader, I am always afraid that the disk isn't in just right and that, while closing, the tray will either scratch the disk or get stuck.

Neither has ever happened to me, and yet the fear remains.

same with me i am always afraid on my PM that the disc is crooked and will get snapped in half when the tray shuts. Almost happened once, but i managed to get the disc out.

 

[MacTruck]

They are neat but less usefull. You can't use 3" discs for instance.

 

[Jay42]

I do like the slot-loading drives a lot better on laptops. I don't feel a strong preference on desktops. My one gripe about slot drives is the cost and limited availably when new disk technologies start coming out. I fear there will be a significant delay in getting blu-ray drives in Macbooks because it will be a while before the slot-loading versions come out.

 

[TheMonarch]

Slot-loading drives are sexy, but you gotta hate Apple for removing the manual eject pin hole. It sucks when something gets stuck.

 

[MattyMac]

I love the slot loading drive...so compact and beutiful like all of apple's products!

 

[lamina]

Ive had a tray-loading laptop for years, and I find that it has the tendency to come open in my bag. The danger there is obvious. Since I got my PowerBook, I will never look back at tray-loading drives.

Before, I was concerned about a disk being stuck in the drive and being unable to get it out, but as far as I can see, that hasn't been much of an issue for anyone.

 

[celebrian23]

For laptops I much prefer slot-loading. for desktops, tray-loading.

 

[Eithanius]

The main problem with slot loading is that they only accept standard CD's and DVD's. Any hybrids give problems. My 12" PB won't read DualDiscs and has problems ejecting SACD hybrids. Basically, any disc that is thicker than a regular CD or DVD, will have some sort of problem.

I've haven't got any problems reading DualDiscs from my iMac, except that the discs are a little bit thicker, so it's a bit harder thru the slot....

 

[Peyton]

Also, wouldn't a powerbook tray have to have a separate piece of aluminum and some sort of white plastic composing the tray? Wouldn't that look...cheap? I have a dell too (desktop) with a dvd and cd drive, flimsy, noisy,redundant, etc. MO