Disc VS Disk: What Are the Differences Between Disk and Disc?

Disc VS Disk Definition #

Although disk and disc are pronounced the same, technically speaking, they have distinct differences.

A disc refers to optical media, including CD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, or DVD-Video disc. A disc is usually used to save multimedia files such as music and videos.

A disk (also known as “hard drive”) refers to magnetic media, such as a floppy disk, hard disk drive (HDD), solid-state drive (SSD), external hard drive, etc., which are usually sealed inside a metal or plastic casing and can be used to save all kinds of files.

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Disc VS Disk Usage #

From the perspective of data read and write, discs can be categorized into these 3 types:

1. Read-only disc: This refers to Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) which is forbidden to writing files.  
2. Write-once-read-many disc: such kind of disc allows you to  write files to the disc once, such as a CD-R or DVD-R, unless you do a multisession burn;
3. Rewritable discs: these discs can be erased and rewritten many times, such as CD-RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM discs.

But disks, are always rewritable unless they are intentionally locked or write-protected.

Besides, a disk is always used as a whole volume, while you can easily partition a disk into several smaller volumes to manage your files easier and boot your computer performance.

Also, all discs are removable, which means when you unmount or eject a disc from your computer, it physically leaves your computer. Things are much different for a disk. To remove an internal disk, you need to cut off computer’s power supply. To disconnect an external hard drive, you had better safely remove it from your computer, otherwise, data loss may occur.

Today, discs and disks are both commonly used. And no matter whether you are using Windows or Mac, the operating system provides a way for you to manage data saved in. Beware that computers in recent years are not providing a CD slot. To use discs normally, external CD/DVD drives are much more necessary.

Next time when you see disc vs disk, you must be able to distinguish the two easily.