Replace CD ROM with CD burner

[Jimmy9190]

I have a used Dell pc that I am using now. My old pc bit the dust about 6 weeks ago, the hard drive was damaged and it had the blue screen of death. It would not start Windows. The computer repair shop said it was probably caused by a virus.

Money was tight at the time (and still is tight now too) so I bought a good used Dell pc, it works fine but I discovered tonight it only has a CD ROM, and it will not burn CD's. I found this out when I was backing up my Itunes library on my new-used computer. I went to burn a CD of an Itunes file and it would not work. It will play a pre-recorded CD though.

Is it possible to take the CD Reader-Writer out of my other (Acer Aspire) pc, remove the CD ROM from my Dell computer and replace it with the CD Reader-Writer from my old Acer computer? If so, is it just a simple plug and play deal or do I need a Computer Science degree from MIT to get it working?

Thanks. I know nothing at all about computers, and I appreciate the help.

 

[Brons2]

most likely they are both using a parallel IDE cable and it's a simple switch. You will probably need a philips screwdriver but nothing else. There's probably a video somewhere on youtube showing you how to do it.

 

[eljefino]

Should be able to. The Parallel IDE cable spoken of is an almost 2 inch wide ribbon cable. Your drive might be a SATA which has fancier cables only 1/2 wide. Would work if you find a jack it plugs into on your motherboard; can't screw anything up plugging into the "wrong" thing.

 

[PandaBear]

If both computer uses SATA interface or PATA interface for the CDROM, then it should be ok to swap.

How old are the computers? 2005-2006 is around the time when the industry started migrating from PATA to SATA for hard drives, and the transition finished pretty much at around 2008 for CDROM/DVDROM/CDRW/DVDRW/BlueRay.

Open up the computers' cover and see if the connectors look the same would be your best shot. If in the worst case they don't match, you can always buy a replacement off craigslist, ebay, or newegg. Those CDRW / DVDRW drives are around $20-30 each nowadays, so it wouldn't cost you too much. The good thing is no driver adjustment is necessary when you swap CD/DVD ROM/RW.

Did you find out what went bad on your old computer? If it is only the hard drive, you could have replaced it for $70 or so. It would take some time to install OSes and all, but it doesn't cost you an arm or a leg.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for the help. I think my old Acer pc was about 4 years old, I have no idea on the age of my new-used Dell pc. I guess it won't hurt anything to open them both up and see what type of connectors they use. If the plugs are the same it should work OK. I also have another older computer that I think might have a CD read-writer and it might have the right kind of plug on its CD drive. It would be great to be able to use the parts I have here on hand to add a CD burner and not have to spend any money on it.

The Acer computer has a virus and the computer shop said they could replace the hard drive and fix it but all the files on it would be erased. The Dell has better specs than the Acer did, and it would probably have cost about as much to fix the Acer as it did to buy the Dell. The computer shop had a good price on the Dell pc, it's one that they fixed and it works very well. It's a lot faster than my Acer pc was, even before the virus showed up. All I really use it for is internet, email, I have a 2001 Dodge Dakota Factory Service Manual on CD and a 2000 song Itunes library.

Itunes is what started this problem with the CD burner. The computer shop said they could do a data transfer for $50.00 that had an 80 to 85% chance of restoring my Itunes and any other files I wanted from the old pc to the new one. My old computer's Itunes files could be infected and could possibly transfer the virus to the Dell pc, so I didn't want to use a copy of Itunes from the infected pc. There really is nothing on that Acer pc that I can't live without but I definitely want to keep my Itunes songs. My Ipod is OK, it has no viruses or anything on it. I found a free program online called Sharepod that allows you to plug your Ipod into your computer and extract the Ipod files so you can store them in a folder on your computer. Then all I had to do was download Itunes on the new used pc and use the "add file to library" function and it put all 2000 songs into the new Itunes library. Sharepod does not import playlists though, or it maybe it does and I just don't know how to do that, but I can make new playlists easily enough. I am just very grateful to have been able to save my Itunes songs on the new used pc. I read that there are programs you can buy online for $20.00 up to $50.00 that will move Itunes from your Ipod to your computer and some of those will automatically import everything to Itunes itself. I did it with Sharepod for free.

I had about half of my Itunes library on CD's, the rest is all music that I bought online or added from CD's I borrowed from friends or the public library. After this virus problem I wanted to put all of my Itunes playlists on CD's just in case I ever have any more pc problems. That was when I discovered my Dell only reads CD's, it can not write a CD. The Dell also has a program on it called CDBurnerXP. I tried to burn a CD with it and it also said the CD drive was not compatible. So I hope to be able to Frankenstein in one of my old CD drives and have it work out OK.

Thanks for the help. I do appreciate it.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
The Acer computer has a virus and the computer shop said they could replace the hard drive and fix it but all the files on it would be erased.

Wow, that is one incompetent computer repair shop. Removing a virus should never involve replacing the hard drive in order to fix it. Go somewhere else.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Just an update here, in case anyone searches for CD drive or Ipod help on BITOG. I spent some time the last few nights making new playlists on my new version of Itunes and I did some spring cleaning on my Itunes library.

This afternoon I removed the CD reader/writer out of my old Acer computer and installed it in my new-used Dell pc. It took me a little while to figure out how to remove the front panel of the Dell pc, but once I got it apart the Acer CD drive went in very easily and when I turned the computer on it instantly recognized the new CD drive. I started Itunes and imported 2 more CD's to my library and I also burned a CD from my library to a blank disc. Everything worked perfectly and without a single problem at all. I checked the playback of the burned CD in another CD player, it was OK. Then I checked my Itunes library and playlists one more time, authorized them and my Ipod on my Dell computer and all of the playlists synced to my Ipod in about 10 or 15 minutes.

I would very highly recommend the Sharepod program to anyone who is having Ipod and/or computer problems. Sharepod works great, is super easy to use and best of all it was 100% free. I was almost ready to buy a similar program for $19.95 online when I did a quick Google search to see if there were any reviews on that program, and that is when I read about Sharepod. Then I Googled reviews on it to be sure that it really worked. I read some great reviews on Sharepod and decided to try it instead. It was about a half-minute download and it worked flawlessly. Now I just need to go through my Itunes library and CD's and be sure all my Itunes songs are all backed up on CD's. I want to do that just in case I have computer problems again and in the event the Sharepod program is not available. And I will burn any future Itunes purchases or borrowed CD's to a CD when I add tem to my library, so hopefully I can avoid any more Itunes trouble.

I am very pleased right now. I had read online from Apple that it is not possible to move an Itunes library from an Ipod to a computer. Apple says it's a one way street from the computer to the Ipod, the one exception being they allow you to move songs on your Ipod that you have already purchased from the Itunes Store from your Ipod to your computer. I could have paid $50.00 for a data transfer that may or may not have worked and could have transferred infected mp3 files to my new-used Dell computer, or I could have spent $19.95 on a program that was for sale online that promised to move the clean files from my Ipod to the computer. I did it myself with Sharepod and it was absolutely free. I am also glad I had a spare CD drive here and it works great. It took me about a half hour to remove it from the Acer pc and install it in my Dell pc.

Thanks everybody for your help on this. I do appreciate it, you guys helped save me $50.00 on a data transfer plus whatever it may have cost to get a new CD drive. I hope I am able to return the favor very soon.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
The Acer computer has a virus and the computer shop said they could replace the hard drive and fix it but all the files on it would be erased.

Wow, that is one incompetent computer repair shop. Removing a virus should never involve replacing the hard drive in order to fix it. Go somewhere else.


I think what the shop meant is wiping the drive with a new image, or swap in a new drive and give you the old drive as a secondary / external after cleaning the virus off, etc.

No sane shop would swap a drive to fix a virus unless the owner wants to keep the old one's data.

 

[JMJNet]

If the computer is having Blue screen, there may be problem with other parts besides the HD. Unfortunately.

The move for a new used PC is the best. In general, paying somebody to fix a bad PC is more expensive than buying a used PC.

Glad you get it fixed.

 

[buickman50401]

Jimmy, do you still have the old computer?

If so, and if you have a spare IDE connector in the Dell (50/50 chance it will since they aren't really made to be upgraded) you can hook up the old HDD temporarily.

Download Microsoft Security Essentials (you should download this regardless) as it is currently just about the best freeware virus/malware protection you can get. Also download HitmanPro3.5 and use the 30day free trial.

Hook up the old drive and have MSE and Hitman scan it and then copy off whatever data you still have on it that you need.

As a bonus if you want a little bit more of an increase in computer responsiveness, take the old HDD and mount it as a slave in the Dell. Partition the disk with an 8GB partition at the beginning of the drive and then one big partition filling up the remainder. You then set Windows to use the 8GB partition on the 2nd HDD for the pagefile. This should increase responsiveness of the system as it moves the page file off the main drive.

I use that setup on all my computers. Desktops get two HDDs. Smaller primary drive for the OS and a large HDD as the secondary to hold the pagefile and the rest data storage.

A similar scheme works well on laptops. Wipe laptops HDD. Parition the disk with a 10GB partition at the start of the disk. That will be fore the page file and all temporary files (you have to of course set this as the location for the pagefile and temp files). Second partition is about 30GB for the OS and other programs. Final partition of the remainder of the disk is for data storage.

It works great if you need to reinstall windows because all your data is on a separate partition that won't be touched when you reinstall windows.