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Caddy for external CD/DVD drive?

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  • 14-04-2015 12:15pm
    #1
    Snickers Man
    Registered Users Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭


    My two teenagers recently bought essentially the same laptop from two different retailers. A Toshiba Satellite.

    The only difference seems to be that my daughter's doesn't have a CD/DVD drive included. Is this common nowadays?

    We have components from several long dead laptops lying around so I thought of cannibalising the DVD drive from one of them and trying to get a caddy for it, similar to those available for hard drives, so that I could hook it up as an external drive via a USB port.

    Are such products available?

    She doesn't need it regularly but immediate issue is to set up our printer so she can access it via Wi-Fi. The generic driver that came with the laptop doesn't do that.

    Any help appreciated.


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    #2
    mordeith
    Registered Users Posts: 5,278 ✭✭✭mordeith


    Snickers Man wrote: »
    My two teenagers recently bought essentially the same laptop from two different retailers. A Toshiba Satellite.

    The only difference seems to be that my daughter's doesn't have a CD/DVD drive included. Is this common nowadays?

    We have components from several long dead laptops lying around so I thought of cannibalising the DVD drive from one of them and trying to get a caddy for it, similar to those available for hard drives, so that I could hook it up as an external drive via a USB port.

    Are such products available?

    She doesn't need it regularly but immediate issue is to set up our printer so she can access it via Wi-Fi. The generic driver that came with the laptop doesn't do that.

    Any help appreciated.

    You should be able to download driver from manufacturer's website.


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    #3
    Skerries
    Registered Users Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭Skerries


    depends if the drive is modular on the old laptop, you could just get an adapter
    Untitled Image




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    #4
    bonzodog2
    Registered Users Posts: 6,220 ✭✭✭bonzodog2


    It is quite common for new laptops not to have an optical drive. ODDs are SATA these days but really old ones are IDE. A different plug and electrical standard. The SATA ones use a similar but not identical plug to a SATA hard disk drive. You can get a cable to convert a SATA laptop ODD to USB, like this:
    http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Practical-USB-2-0-to-7-6-13Pin-SATA-Laptop-CD-DVD-Rom-Drive-Adapter-Cable-/321654328824?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item4ae4178df8


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    #5
    riclad
    Registered Users Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    its common to see laptops with no dvd drive, because most programs ,files ,games can be downloaded from the internet.
    IT reduces power consumption, of the laptop.
    the battery will last longer .if theres no dvd drive to power on.
    A laptop with no dvd drive is usually cheaper, unless its an apple laptop.

    i only use my dvd drive to read old disks, and burn iso files for linux .
    only laptops more than 6-7 years old would maybe use a ide dvd drive,
    that laptop would have windows xp,or vista on it.


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