4
Are laptop optical drives always compatible? Do they come in different physical sizes? Are there any specs I need to match on the new drive, such as whether it has SATA?
If so, how would I find these specs for my dell? (the details don't seem to be in the users manual or service manual)
Background:
I have a Dell 1720 and want to buy a new optical drive for it - I'm replacing an existing DVD drive with a blu-ray drive.
I almost just bought the first laptop drive I found on eBay, when it occurred to me they might not all be standard in size/interface/power/etc.
The Dell service manual has clear instructions on how to remove/replace it, looks easy:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1720/en/SM/optical.htm#wp1179838
but no specs on what kind of drive I'd need to replace it with.
+1 and my answer deleted - when I went looking, it seems laptop optical drives aren't even sold as PATA or SATA, so although SATA optical drives may one day take over, for the moment they're presumably all still PATA. Certainly an optical drive doesn't need SATA yet to get the full speed, and never will for DVD - maybe not for Blu-Ray either. For Desktops, SATA is taking over for optical drives because the cable is more convenient and less of a problem for cooling, and in the hope of dropping PATA connectors completely from motherboards - not for performance. – Steve314 – 2011-04-26T04:21:27.497
Honestly, it was a total surprise to me - one reason the answer is so detailed is I couldn't believe they hadn't dumped ATAPI for sata and did lots of digging. Sata basically makes PERFECT sense as a replacement for Atapi and does exist in roughly the same form factor. It would make it simpler - especially since you could probably pop in a 2.5 or 3.5 inch HDD in a caddy instead and not need to support a 'obsolete' interface, but that's just how it is. – Journeyman Geek – 2011-04-26T04:35:18.290