If it's new enough to support CD ROM drives at all, a DVD drive will work.

Controller cards in 386 or early 486 system often didn't, though. That's why sound cards often had built-in IDE controllers especially for CD ROM drives.

Yeah I was going to say, I thought you had to hook it to the sound card someway.

To play it safe you can always install a proprietary CD-ROM with ISA controller card (sound card). 😀

I've never come across a cd/dvd/cdr/dvdr drive that didn't work as a reader, as long as the pc had an IDE controller of some kind (on board, independant card, on sound card but not drive-specific). It's IDE protocol after all, any drive claiming to follow it should work on every pc/card claiming to support it.
To be honest I lately strugle to find IDE and white drives 😀

eBay and Amazon are flooded with IDE CD-ROMs.

Any nearby computer repairman should have parts, I would go ask them. That's where I get most of my stuff these days.

It will mostly work, but I've seen a few hiccups and awkwardness, so I suggest using CD-ROM drives instead of DVDs, for anything socket 7 and below. For example, my Pioneer DVD totally refused to play any music CDs and CD music of games I played in a PIII system; an LG DVD, however, works perfectly in the same system. My 386sx build (1992 or something like it) refused to work with a perfectly good LG DVD, while it works with a Asus CDRW without any hassle.

Please note that all these drives are in nice working condition and was working with modern systems without any problems.

But the best thing is to try, as always, before making any decisions. There is nothing to lose anything but time, by trying..🤣

Windows 98 and earlier do not support the UDF file system, so if you're planning to use multisession DVD-R discs, only the first session will be visible. I think you can still use IsoBuster to view the full contents of the disc, but you'll have to pay for the full version if you want to extract files. I'm not sure if there's anything else out there that will do the trick.

I'm not sure what else you'd do with a DVD drive on an old computer if you're not planning to read DVD-Rs, unless you just can't find a CD-ROM drive.

For $10/15 USPS will deliver a CD-ROM from eBay / Amazon. Could not be less hassle IMO.

I have not personally tried DVD drives, but here is my experience with ATAPI CD-ROM drives in 386 and 486 systems. They can work on standard 16-bit multi I/O controllers when connected to the slave port, but things go wonky when you enable 32-bit disk access. So your drive might be perfectly happy under DOS but throw up errors in Windows. If you have a controller with a secondary IDE controller, or even a separate secondary controller the ATAPI drives seem to work normally when configured as a master.
A reason not to use the IDE connectors on soundcards is that sometimes they are using tertiary or quaternary port addresses, which might confuse some old programs. I've never personally had an issue with that, but then again I've always used my optical drives on secondary ports.

Jorpho wrote:

Windows 98 and earlier do not support the UDF file system, so if you're planning to use multisession DVD-R discs, only the first session will be visible. I think you can still use IsoBuster to view the full contents of the disc, but you'll have to pay for the full version if you want to extract files. I'm not sure if there's anything else out there that will do the trick.

I'm not sure what else you'd do with a DVD drive on an old computer if you're not planning to read DVD-Rs, unless you just can't find a CD-ROM drive.

Actually there are UDF files for Win98. I haven't tested it yet, but a brief search found one Here fairly quickly. I do know it (or one like it,) worked just fine on my Windows XP install. I had to get it to read Blue-Ray disks when I got my Blue-Ray burner. I don't currently have a DVD drive to put in my Windows 98 system, but from what I've been reading, Later versions of UDF are also used by some CD-RW software to enable better usage of the disks. Not using the same area over and over - but cycling through the other areas as well. If I understand the information I, admittedly, just skimmed through 😀

Jorpho wrote:

Windows 98 and earlier do not support the UDF file system, so if you're planning to use multisession DVD-R discs, only the first session will be visible. I think you can still use IsoBuster to view the full contents of the disc, but you'll have to pay for the full version if you want to extract files. I'm not sure if there's anything else out there that will do the trick.

I'm not sure what else you'd do with a DVD drive on an old computer if you're not planning to read DVD-Rs, unless you just can't find a CD-ROM drive.

Well, I've been seriously considering installing a DVD-ROM drive to replace the CD-ROM drive in my vintage system. Mainly to make storage of all the patches & upgrades a little easier. Would also make my archive a little easier to access as well. Lately it's been getting to be a hassle reading the archive on my primary system, packing them onto 1.44M floppies, then copying them to my vintage system to re-image the original 5.25" disks. I don't really want to burn CD's with them. Yes, I can fit quite a few of them on a CD, but I currently have most of my games archived on 10 DVD's. That comes out to 40 CD's. I currently have 3 blank CD's to use, so I've been using floppies. The only thing I've really been debating is whether or not to go ahead and get a DVD-Writer instead of just a ROM. The difference in price between a CD-ROM and DVD-Writer is really not that great. The same $15 PeterLi mentioned would also get a DVD-RW Drive as well.

A main PC server on Ethernet works better for me then burning CDROMs, drivers for setting up systems can be on a thumbstick (if you have USB) or just install the Ethernet driver from a floppy.

Generic white/beige CDROM drives are kind of hard to find anymore, everything is a CDRW and those are a little out of place installed into an early Pentium systems. I tend to want SCSI for my old 286/386/486 systems anyway and those are very hard to find.

Not hard at all.

FeedingDragon wrote:

I haven't tested it yet, but a brief search found one Here fairly quickly. I do know it (or one like it,) worked just fine on my Windows XP install. I had to get it to read Blue-Ray disks when I got my Blue-Ray burner. I don't currently have a DVD drive to put in my Windows 98 system, but from what I've been reading, Later versions of UDF are also used by some CD-RW software to enable better usage of the disks.

Yes, the UDF file system was used by various different CDRW programs; basically, programs like the one you linked to allow Windows to treat a CDRW disc as a large floppy disk to which files can be arbitrarily copied rather than requiring to burn additional sessions. I seem to recall such programs have specific functionality and will not somehow enable the use of multisession DVDs, though.

Jorpho wrote:

Yes, the UDF file system was used by various different CDRW programs; basically, programs like the one you linked to allow Windows to treat a CDRW disc as a large floppy disk to which files can be arbitrarily copied rather than requiring to burn additional sessions. I seem to recall such programs have specific functionality and will not somehow enable the use of multisession DVDs, though.

That was just the first one I came across in my quick search (wasn't doing an in-depth search.) For more details.... UDF began with v1.02. V1.50 was added for both CD-RWs & DVD-RWs. V2.00 (&V2.01) added for DVD-R/RW recording (streaming.) V2.50 for Blue-Rays, and v2.60 for Pseudo Overwrite (whatever that is.) Windows 98 is natively limited to 1.02 - but there are third party drivers that go all the way up to 2.60 at least. Windows XP is limited to 2.01 (SP3,) - but again there are 3rd party drivers up to 2.60. Of course, in all cases, the drive itself must be capable of reading the disks/formats in question. Though if you are getting a new recordable drive, chances are that isn't something you need to worry to much about.

That was from skimming my results during my quick search. Which is why I continued the search, and didn't look closer at the page I found that just said UDF driver for Windows 98 for CD-RW multisession disks (usually created with drag-n-drop etc....) The above info is mostly contained Here but I got bits and pieces of it confirmed from other locations as well.

The whole point is that drivers exist to let you read those DVDs & CDs if you are willing to do the searching. DVD-ROM drivers aren't "wasted" on Windows 98. In all honesty, how could they be wasted when Windows 98 was still being sold new when DVD-ROM drives were coming on to the market at affordable prices. Dell laptops actually had the option to come with a DVD-ROM drive instead of a CD-ROM in 1998. I worked there at that time - in the Latitude (or laptop,) department.

Oh, and that link I gave specifically states the ability to read CD-RWs, so it add support up v1.50 at the least (which is used for both CD & DVD re-writable drives.) The only limiting factors, are that the drive itself must be capable, and the system buss (IDE port,) has to also support the drive in question. I do believe that second part was brought up earlier though. So far, in a more detailed search, I've found 6 UDF drivers, though 1 looks like it might be for Windows XP only, and a couple look like they might be different versions of the same driver. If I had a DVD-ROM drive in my Windows 98 system, I'd give them a try.

FeedingDragon wrote:

DVD-ROM drivers aren't "wasted" on Windows 98. In all honesty, how could they be wasted when Windows 98 was still being sold new when DVD-ROM drives were coming on to the market at affordable prices. Dell laptops actually had the option to come with a DVD-ROM drive instead of a CD-ROM in 1998.

Who are you quoting? No one said "wasted". I for one said "I'm not sure what else you'd do with a DVD drive on an old computer if you're not planning to read DVD-Rs". Also, even if DVD-ROM drives were common at the time, recordable drives weren't particularly.

FeedingDragon wrote:

So far, in a more detailed search, I've found 6 UDF drivers, though 1 looks like it might be for Windows XP only, and a couple look like they might be different versions of the same driver. If I had a DVD-ROM drive in my Windows 98 system, I'd give them a try.

I can hardly deny there were numerous utilities for writing to CD-RWs back in the day; all I'm saying is that there's a good possibility they might not work for reading multisession DVD-Rs, even if they both used some version of UDF. But I should probably refrain from speculating.

I'll shut up now.

My apologies. "Wasted" was my own thought from the comments, I shouldn't have implied it was yours as well. Again, sorry about that.

The drivers I researched (and downloaded - I'll test them out eventually,) are all for reading UDF disks in native Windows 9x, not for writing them. The link I gave actually states its for "reading only" of disks written with the software you have to buy - and that these drivers come with that writing software so you won't need them. So as long as the DVD drive itself is capable, then those formats can also be read in native Windows 9x. That's all I was trying to say really, that UDF reading is fairly easy in Windows 9x.

None of the drivers I downloaded, however, specify a UDF version limit - so I don't know how high their support goes beyond 1.50 (the RW version.) I have no idea which (if any) of them supports 2.0x (2.01 was a bug fix really,) or 2.50+ (mainly for Blue-Ray & HD.) According to what I've read, drivers for versions 2.50 are available, but I cannot confirm it. I don't know of any non-SATA Blue-Ray drives though (but I haven't really looked since I bought mine.) So, I'd be willing to say that I wouldn't advise trying to get a Blue-Ray running in an older (Pre Windows XP,) system.

Basically, the original question was, if a DVD would work in an older system of if they "had" to use a CD. They didn't state the age of the system though. I'd be willing to go with a general rule of thumb.... If it has PCI slots, a DVD drive should be fine. If all you have is ISA, a DVD drive is risky, and it might be safer (assuming you haven't actually bought either yet,) to just get a CD. As someone said earlier, if you already have the DVD drive and are trying to find out if you need to buy a CD, then I'd say don't bother just yet. Install the DVD, and if it doesn't work, go looking for a CD.