Warnock Inc. Technology Consultation for the Future

How to Install a DVD Drive in a Laptop

First off, I apologize if this seems simple, but I did not know this is possible. If I had this information earlier I would have done this a long time ago! One day I was working on my Carputer and I was installing a slim DVD rom drive. I noticed that it was quite a bit different
and smaller than my Dell laptop cd-rom drive so I figured that Dell used a proprietary format for its drives and I could not use this drive in it. I had priced replacement drives for the laptop previously and they were quite expensive. I looked a bit closer and realized that it looked like there was a standard CD-ROM drive inside a special case in the laptop and that was
the only difference. I decided to investigate and sure enough i was correct.

I must note that this works on my Dell Inspiron laptop but I can safely assume it will work on most laptops like IBM, Toshiba and Hewlett Packard
(HP).

If you want do purchase a generic standard slim DVD-ROM or CD-R drive and replace the drive in your laptop, here are the instructions:

Step 1 - Purchase a slim drive

Google
or Pricewatch for them.
They are out there. My DVD-ROM drive was about $50. That's a
lot cheaper than what Dell wants for them.

That's the drive.
Sorry its blurry.

Step 2 - Remove the old drive from your laptop. Mine is a quick release hot swapable drive and was enclosed in a case.

This is the back, notice it is different from the new drive's connector.

Step 3 - Remove the case that surrounds the original drive. My Dell drive had 2 screws on each side.

Notice the ribbon cable which hangs out the back. This is a converter from the standard slim drive format to the Dell format. Remove this carefully and hold onto it.

Now you can really see that the two drives are exactly the same size and format.

The only difference was the Dell drive has a taller front. It didn't really create a problem for me.

Step 4 - Put the converter on the new drive

Step 5 - Put the case back on the new drive in the same manner as you removed it from the old drive.

Step 6 - Your done! This is what the final product should look like. Pop it back in your laptop and see if it finds it.

Sure enough it found it. It should not require any drivers.

You just breathed new life into that laptop of yours. Enjoy!!