# DVD burner types (DVD-RAM)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-burner-types-dvd-ram/499345>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 10, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-burner-types-dvd-ram/499345 "2009-06-10T16:34:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-burner-types-dvd-ram/499345/1 "2009-06-10T16:34:09Z")

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My work laptop comes equipped with a DVD burner. As far as I can tell, it’s a DVD-RAM drive: the device type in control panel says “MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-852”.

Doing a little googling and per [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RAM), it seems this is one of several competing formats.

I’d like to use this to back up some data from my desktop (I’d have to get the desktop data over by copying to an external drive, then copying that to the laptop).

I was at Staples the other day to see if I could buy DVD-RAM blanks - and they had nothing. Stacks and stacks of DVD-R and DVD-RW, but nothing that explicitly said DVD-RAM.

Could a typical DVD-RAM drive write to one of these other formats as well? Anyone have any experience or anecdotes?

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**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-burner-types-dvd-ram/499345/2 "2009-06-10T16:41:29Z")

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You can use any of those you listed.

# 3X Speed DVD-RAM Writing

# 8X Speed DVD±R Writing

# 4X Speed DVD±R(DL) dual layer Writing

# 8X Speed DVD±RW Writing

# 24X Speed CD-R Writing

# 16X Speed CD-RW Writing

From [here](http://www.netcomdirect.com/pamaujuldula.html).

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-burner-types-dvd-ram/499345/3 "2009-06-10T17:06:31Z")

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Wow - thanks! I just concentrated on googling the format (DVD-RAM), and didn’t think to google the actual device name. :smack: