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I kind of wanted the convenience of an external optical drive, but didn’t like the idea of spending $60 or more for something I’d only need occasionally.
Then I realized I could harvest the old dvd-rom drive from my wife’s ancient laptop collecting dust in the closet. Picked up this enclosure for ~ $20 with shipping. There are many online sites selling it. There’s also a black one, but it doesn’t include the bezel. I needed a new bezel since the existing one was custom shaped… hence I chose the white one.
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3117/3199784027_38ec4a729b.jpg?v=0[/img]
I’m quite surprised by the quality. I’m sure it’s not as tough as some of the complete external drives you can buy, but it’s definitely not a flimsy piece of crap either. Seems solid for basic use around home, toting it in a padded bag, etc.
The great thing is that it’s TINY and it’s USB powered. One usb cable between NC10 and drive. Runs just fine from the NC10 when it’s on battery power… was installing some old games to test it out. If I did my math right, it won’t draw more than 2.5 Watts peak, which is the same ballpark as the Atom processor… i.e. not a big drain on the battery. It’s about the same length & width as a standard cd jewel case, and is the same thickness as 2 jewel cases stacked together. I posted many more pictures here.
One thing about the bezel – it was compatible with my drive (Toshiba from 1999) in terms of eject button, led, and paper-clip-hole locations, but the little clips didn’t align with my drive. No big deal, I just cut them off and glued the bezel to the front of the drive with some silicone adhesive.
Anyhow, a great way to reuse an old laptop drive, if you can find one laying around (don’t forget friends and the office 🙂 ).
Very cool, thanks for sharing. Recycling and money saving in one!
I have two or three old drives sitting around gathering dust. I just network through my desktop for now but this is a great solution for those with bits to reuse.
I went the bear bones route, I use an internal IDE DVD drive connected by a IDE to USB converter. Cables everywhere. 🙂
That’s the Geeky Spirt! 😛
My dad already has a external CD drive, so I’ll just borrow it from him when I need a CD drive for my NC10.
[quote1232670608=Billy Rubin]
I went the bear bones route, I use an internal IDE DVD drive connected by a IDE to USB converter. Cables everywhere. 🙂
[/quote1232670608]
Yeah that’s would have done if I already had the adapter. Actually for a while I was using a partially disassembled hard drive enclosure in this manner… now that was a rat’s nest 🙂 Then I found this enclosure online, cost the same as buying an ide-usb adapter, and said what the heck and went with it.Thanks for this. Reading this post just made me realize I do have a spare drive available that can be used to do this and save a few bucks.
Looks cheaper than the one I bought. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLK-USBEXT-NBCDCADDY&cat=CSE
I’ve got a Blu Ray drive in mine that I pulled from my wife’s HP. Definitely a good option if you have a drive sitting around.
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