Question aboud DVD drive

[ohheckyeah]

My computer has a DVD drive that I want to replace with a DVD RW drive. Is that difficult to do?

[Fumesucker]

1. It *should* be as simple as unplugging one and plugging up the other..

You will need to know if yours is an IDE drive or a SATA drive, basically an IDE drive has a connector on the back that's a couple of inches wide with two rows of many pins and has a ribbon cable and connector just as wide going to it while a SATA drive has a much smaller connector with considerably fewer pins.





There's also the power connector but if you get the right drive for your setup it will already have the right power connector.

I have an external DVD burner that plugs into a USB port and I really like that because I can put it on any computer that has USB, including my clapped out old laptop in just a few moments without having to open anything.

[ohheckyeah]

2. I found a website that sells

parts for my computer and the part I'm looking to use should be compatible.

[Fumesucker]

3. Even if I'm not buying through Amazon I check out anything there

And see how the ratings are.. Four stars or more out of five with a decent number of ratings and it's usually pretty good stuff.

Got a link to the piece you're thinking of?

Edited to add: And for a few dollars more you can get a Lightscribe DVD burner that will make labels on specially coated DVDs, if neatness is important to you at all.

This disk was done with Lightscribe, it's not very fast and it's only black and (usually) gold but can look pretty nice.

[ohheckyeah]

4. That's very cool. I like that a lot!

Here's a link to the drive:

http://www.impactcomputers.com/g9237.html

[Fumesucker]

5. OK, that's an IDE drive, pretty much any IDE unit the same size will work..

Here's an external USB Lightscribe, the nice thing about using an external unit is you can copy straight from your internal DVD reader to the external writer

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLK-GE20LU10-NP&cat=DVD

Here's an internal Lightscribe IDE unit..

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4955314&CatId=482

Same unit except with software.. You can make the Lightscribe labels with this software..

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4955313&CatId=482

[ohheckyeah]

6. Thanks for the information.

So any IDO unit is compatible with my computer?

[Fumesucker]

7. IDE... Integrated Drive Electronics..

Also sometimes known as PATA for Parallel ATA .. *not* SATA which is the wrong connector for you..

Here's the Plextor Lightscribe unit at newegg.com, a lot of people seem to like them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827249053&cm_re=ide_dvd_burner-_-27-249-053-_-Product

This would be a good one also..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151176&cm_re=ide_dvd_burner-_-27-151-176-_-Product

Another with Lightscribe..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106282&cm_re=ide_dvd_burner-_-27-106-282-_-Product

[ohheckyeah]

8. Thanks very much.

I'll check these out. (Sorry for the typo, I meant IDE but typed IDO.)

[ConsAreLiars]

9. Although your current DVD Drive is hooked up via the IDE connector, it's possible that SATA

connectors are also present. If so, choose a SATA drive as a replacement. They look like this:



The one hitch is that, assuming your power supply only has the 4-pin MOLEX connectors, the type plugged in to your current DVD, an adapter for that will also be needed. Easy to attach, but depending on your friend network, maybe not so easy to get.

(edit typo)

Edit further to add:

There's no reason to buy from a seller that claims to offer parts specific to your computer. Every device that has an IDE (or SATA) connector will work on any machine that has an IDE (or SATA) connector. The only exceptions are some instances where specialized hardware requires customized software to function, and that software only works on some computers.