But switching to CAV requires considerable changes in hardware design, so instead most drives use the zoned firm linear velocity (Z-CLV) scheme. This divides the disc into different zones, each having its own different habitual linear velocity. A Z-CLV recorder rated at "52X", for example, would write at 20X on the innermost zone and then progressively increase the speed in certain discrete steps Cassette to CD up to 52X at the outer rim.

Optical disc drives are generally passed down for small-scale archival or data exchange, being slower and more materially posh per gang than the moulding case not new to mass-manufacture pressed discs. But they—along with flash memory—have displaced floppy disk drives and magnetic tape drives in most cases because of the bottommost damage of optical media and the near-ubiquity of optical drives in computers and consumer entertainment hardware.