They are also useful for installing old software you may have lying around, or playing a favorite game you only have on a CD. Whether you want to transfer your favorite DVDs to your laptop, or, perhaps conversely, are trying to transfer your movie collection to your device's hard drive or the cloud, one of the external drives on this list can help. While some may view CD and DVD drives as antiquated technology at this point, and there is no doubt it is heading that way, many still use them for a variety of reasons.