Change the DVD ROM for a CD RW Questions

[DrThinkpad]

Hi thinkpad owners,

I recently bought a refurbished T40 that came with a dvd rom

A friend of mine would switch it's T42's combo drive against my DVD rom as he never burns anything

I was wondering what will i have to do when I switch the bay's... simply remove it, then put the new one in or will I have to do any driver change from one to the other ?

I also heard about external cd burners that provide a better performance but I find them quite pricey (as I'm a grade 9 student with not much $$$ and I don't want to buy from e-bay )

A local thinkpad seller may also sell me a slightly better combo drive for 25$...


What option should I take ? If I take my friend's T42 drive, will I have any driver change to do ? Thanks in advance !

[ajkula66]

You may want to check the compatibility...to the best of my belief, T4x series have never come with the CD-RW, just with DVD or combo drives...

[DrThinkpad]

You may want to check the compatibility...to the best of my belief, T4x series have never come with the CD-RW, just with DVD or combo drives...

Oops, I meant combo drive, my bad

[ajkula66]

Then go ahead, swap and enjoy...

[Stan]

This is a combo drive I'm guessing? A DVD/ CDRW unit?

I suspect Windows will take care of installing the combo drive without needing additional drivers.

I recently bought a T42 and subsequently bought a combo drive to replace the DVD ROM it came with.

The combo drive was a Lenovo badged one, manufactured in 2007 (I'd guess it came from a T6* series model) and good old XP installed it in seconds.

It works like a charm.

[DrThinkpad]

Then go ahead, swap and enjoy...

Will it still install itself if I have XpLite (worries because of removed features) ? Thanks !

[Stan]

I'm not familiar with XPLite, it depends on how much it has been crippled, I suspect.

Windows XP will install most non- esoteric peripherals without third party intervention in its native form. For example, CD/ DVD, hard drives, monitors etc.

But, not being familiar with the the manipulated version of Windows XP you are using, I can't say for certain.

The only way to find out is to bite the bullet, I'm afraid.

[KristianJ]

I also heard about external cd burners that provide a better performance but I find them quite pricey (as I'm a grade 9 student with not much $$$ and I don't want to buy from e-bay )

I'd say give it a few months and buy (or ask for a birthday gift) a DVD burner and suitable drive enclosure from your local computer store, and you'll have your own ready made external burner that will be able to burn both CDs and DVDs. When I'm at home, I always use my external burner in preference to the laptop burners, mainly because of the extra speed.