Swapping optical drives

Sadly, yes. Bare slim optical drives are standardized, and any adapter/carrier hardware is easily removable, when not compatible between systems.

GM

Why sadly?

So you don't have to change your screen name. :smileyvery-happy:

GM

Looking inside the bay i didn't see anything that was interchangeable.

Only the adapter/carrier hardware is at risk of being incompatible between systems, not the bare drive. The C600 owner should have hardware included with the original fixed drive to swap over, or may have or need to aquire a carrier for using the drive in a media bay.

GM

She brought the system by and it would not fit. The din plug was on the left side not the right, otherwise it would have bee swappable.

 

Not sure if any of you knew this and it was what you were saying.

 

 

Sooooooo...?

To replace the bare drive in a C600, remove the caddy from the notebook, open the caddy, remove the bare drive, and install the replacement. There are a few small phillips screws to be removed before opening the caddy.

The caddy for a bare optical drive used in the C600 and other Dell "C-series" notebooks looks like http://cgi.ebay.com/CD-CADDY-Drive-4-DELL-INSPIRON-LATITUDE-LAPTOP-series_W0QQitemZ6847424890QQcategoryZ74949QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem  with a bare drive installed.

The caddy for an optical drive used in the I8600 and other Dell "D-series" notebooks looks like http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Latitude-cd-dvd-drive-module-caddy-c3284-a00_W0QQitemZ6847891596QQcategoryZ74949QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem  when the bare drive is removed. (There may be just one small phillips screw next to the electrical connector holding the bare drive in the caddy.)

The C600 owner has the option to shop for a bare drive to be used in the existing caddy, or to purchase another caddy separately, or a more limited selection of bare drives already installed in a compatible caddy.

Bare optical notebook drives are universally compatible. The hardware used to adapt the bare drive to a particular notebook installation is easily removable. If drives are going to be swapped frequently rather than permanently replaced, it would be more convenient to have them each mounted in a compatible carrier, but it only takes a few minutes and a small phillips screwdriver to dis-assemble the bare drive from the carrier, which allows the use of any bare drive.

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GM

Thank you for the information! She called me to tell me she had found a DVD-ROM drive elsewhere and was headed to pick it up, and wasn't sure if it needed software or not. I told her all she needd was a program to play it, other than that it was plug and play.

 

I wish i had understood fully what you told me prior, but now i know for future reference.

 

WOW...learn something new every day.