In the context of computers, the term "media" refers to various data storage formats. Hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and USB drives are a few examples of various media types. Discs that can be scanned by a laser are referred to as optical media. This encompasses Blu-ray discs, DVD-ROMs, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, CD-ROMs, and all of the other variants of the two forms.

The time it takes to retrieve data in various locations on the disk on optical media is usually slower than on hard disks, but it has a number of other benefits. Optical discs have a longer storage life than magnetic media—roughly seven times longer—and are less likely to loose their data because they do not rely on magnetic charges like hard drives do. The CDs are excellent for backups and for moving tiny quantities of data between various computers because they are much more robust than hard drives and are much less expensive to make.