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.
Best Answer
as far as i've seen, laptops still seem to use the old ATAPI interface which is pata based, and from the images of a supposedly compatable drive on amazon (TS-L632) it looks identical to the standard pata drives on my thinkpads - i can easily pop the one on my 3 year old laptop into a significantly older system so its a fairly common standard- so its very likely any drive that meets the atapi standards will work
To be sure you can look it up using a system information software like SIW - There should be a wmi/wmic way to do it as well
Alternately you can look at the make/model of your current drive - you can check this from device manager - and google what its specs are
EDIT: this is the specs for the drive that model is supposed to come with - as long as the replacement drive matches up, it should work - the form factor is standard, just make sure its ATAPI as opposed to slim line sata (which is a beast that's supposed to exist, but i have never seen)