CDROM stands for Compact Disk Read-Only Memory. CD's are used to store large amounts of data. A single CD can hold about 600 megabytes

This is a CDROM drive when it is closed.

When opened, it looks just like a music CD player (and the CD loads and unloads from the tray the same as a music CD player as well).

Here is what a CDROM Drive looks like inside the computer

For more information about CDROMs, the CDROM FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a good start.

Here is a demonstration of a CDROM drive opening and closing (this is a quicktime move, ie has the extension .mov, and a Quicktime movie player will be needed): CDROM Demo (268k)

This movie was made by using and Intel video capture board a video recorder, and video software.

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