I want to get a dvd burner drive for my desktop. My desktop currently only has one drive, and the one below it is empty. could i just buy a dvd burner drive and add it to the empty slot below? if so would i be able to put it in my self? i'm not as computer illiterate as it may seem. i am learning. or is this something that only a guru should do?

 

Most people could do it.

Can you open the case?

Do you know what a ribbon cable is?

Do you know how to jumper between Master, Slave and Cable Select?

If you answered "maybe" to these, you should be able to do it.

What's the worst thing that could happen?

 

Easy. Usually the biggest problem is getting the case open.

Get an IDE drive and connect it as a slave to your other CD drive. Or, if your hard disk isnt SATA you can hook is as a slave of one of your hard drives.

It can only plug in 1 way. To make things easier, make sure the jumper on the back of the new drive is using CS (cable select) as well as CS on the drive it is saving off of.

You should have no problems. It only really goes in 1 way.

Good luck.

You can get a dual DVD durner for like 40 bucks too. Shop around.

 

so how do i jumper between master, slave and cable select.

now i've delt with jumpers before. theyre the little tiny almost fuse looking like things right?

 

The ribbon cable coming off the board that goes to the existing CD drive should have 2 plugs, 1 that is connected to the CD drive and an empty one (granted nothing has been added) about half way up. Simply connect the new drive to that half way up connector and connect one of the unused power cables to the new drive.

As for moving the jumpers, you are exactly right, they are the black fuse like squares on the back. If you look closely around where the jumpers are it should show you CS, MA, SL (Cable select, Master, Slave) configurations. Simply connect it accordingly. (CS for both drives)

Good luck.

 

thanks! sound pretty simple. you guys are helpful as always.