CD drive to CD drive swap

[makai]

Hi all,

I'm new here... in fact... new to IBM notebooks! I am now a proud owner of a T41.

I did a search all over the forum (and the net) for what I want to do, but couldn't find an answer.

My T41 has a DVD/CD-RW drive 8x16x10x, and I was wondering if I could take my 8x24x24x24x drive from my Compaq and use it in my T41 simply by changing the rear interface connectors between the two drives.

What I was thinking is that I could disassemble the T41 drive and place the Compaq drive into the T41 carrier. Would this work?

Ebay does sell 8x24x24x24x drives for T41s that are the exact same model as on my Compaq so I'm guessing it should work... right???

TIA for any advice?

Aloha,
makai

[JHEM]

Makai,

If you're positive the model numbers are exactly the same, then yes you can just change the plastic bits on the drives and swap them.

Regards,

James

[makai]

James,

Thanks for the response. But after much consideration, I've decided to just leave things as they are. As it is, although I have bought and paid for my T41, I don't have it right here in front of me so, I really can't say the drives are exactly the same until I see whats in the IBM.

Thanks again!

Aloha,
makai

[jmt]

I am far from an expert and I would advise to to confirm this, but I think you could make the change and be fine. I made a switch from one make and model of DVD/Cd-RW drive to a different make and model and the only thihg that happened is that Windows XP, on restart, recongnised the new make and model. There is no driver to install so all it did was make the aknowledgement and everything worked perfect. I hope this helps.

[JHEM]

Makai and JMT,

Gather round children while I tell you a tale.

Everyone knows that there is only one multi-burner that will fit in the Ultrabay Slim of the T4X series, the M a t s u s h i t a UJ-812.

I have here beside me a M a t s u s h i t a UJ-812B multi-burner that was a working pull from a Compaq system.

Aha! A slightly upgraded version of the UJ-812 the logical mind thinks, so it should be a clean swap into a T4X capable drive!

Imagine my shock and horror when I discovered that the "B" in the nomenclature designated that the Slimline ATAPI-IDE connector on the ex Compaq drive was female, not male, i.e. the exact reverse of IBM compatible optical drives.

Aloha bra,

James

[makai]

jmt and James,

Thanks for the input. I have swapped other laptop drives before, so I was hoping there would also be no problems with the T41. Wow, James, sad tale! Does this mean you now have a "B" drive you can't use? Or did you sell it? Too bad it didn't fit.

Anyways, as stated earlier, I think I'll just hang with what comes stock with the T41 for now. My Compaq will probably go to my daughter, so I can check it out at a later time.

Aloha to both of you!

makai

[Ted_E]

jmt and James,

Thanks for the input. I have swapped other laptop drives before, so I was hoping there would also be no problems with the T41. Wow, James, sad tale! Does this mean you now have a "B" drive you can't use? Or did you sell it? Too bad it didn't fit.

Anyways, as stated earlier, I think I'll just hang with what comes stock with the T41 for now. My Compaq will probably go to my daughter, so I can check it out at a later time.

Aloha to both of you!

makai

I assume you want to swap because you would like to have a burner in the TP. If so I can think of two alternatives:
I believe the T4x has USB 2.0. If so, you could pick up an external drive.
Otherwise or if you don't want to compromise your portability you could buy one of the IBM burners. They are rather pricey but when I added up all I would have to do to my T23, I decided to get the Ultraburner plus (model 73P3312). It works very well.

[makai]

Hi Ted,

Thanks for the reply! Actually, a funny but good thing happened today. If you read through my posts, you would have seen that I really didn't have my T41 in hand. Well, today it came!! Woohoo!!

Well, the first thing I checked was the DVD/CD-RW drive as I wanted to know what model it was. It turns out to be a GCC-4242N which is made by Hitachi/LG. It seems that prior to my getting my T41, everything I read about my particular T41 model said that it came with a 8x16x10 drive. Well my Compact drive is a 8x24x24x24 so I wanted to swap it. In any case, the GCC-4242N happens to have the same specs as my Compact drive according to the LG site. So... I'm a happy camper now that I don't have to worry about trying to swap a faster drive into the T41, because it already has one!!

Anyways, now that I have my T41, I'm going to clone the hard drive using CasperXP onto a usb backup drive. Then I'm going to wipe the drive and do a clean install of XP. Currently, the T41's root drive is 7.1 gigs with basically nothing on it except Office 2003. IBM must throw a lot of junk on their laptops as my desktop is only about 4.5 gigs with all kinds of apps and photo software. I don't need a lot of what's currently running on the laptop... so away they go!

But first... gotta go download drivers!!!

Aloha,
makai

[califas]

Does this look like male or female. Trying to figure out if it will work on a T42.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/t ... e/d8_1.jpg