Fun with hardware

As noted in the previous entry, I received a DVD burner for Christmas, so I cracked open the computer case this morning after deciding to replace my current CDRW drive rather than go with two opticals. I decided this because I just don't copy CDs that much, and I still can with only one drive, but if I wanted to go with with two drives, it would be better to get a cheapy DVD-ROM drive (which can also read CDs) so that I could copy movies or music, and not just music. Also, one of my other computers has a CD-ROM drive that is not doing so well, and my old drive would make a worth replacement.

Anyway, I've got a Dell Dimension, which, unlike the way-cool-to-take-apart Dell Optiplex, took a little more effort to get into and add a drive. Fortunately the whole drive cage comes out so that the drives can be mounted to the cage directly, instead of having to squeeze hands into small spaces with low lighting. So I took my old drive out of the top 5.25" bay (there are two) and replaced it with the Sony. I put the whole thing back together, booted up, logged into windows, and hit the eject button so I could start loading software. Nothing but funky noises. So I took a closer look... crap. There was a plastic lip hanging down from the face of the case that was keeping the drive from opening. Ahhh!

I'm going to have to open this back up aren't I?

Yep.

After some measurement, the drive door is 3/16" taller than that of my previous drive, just enough to be maybe 1/16" under the case lip. Ironically, had I just left the old drive in and added the second, this wouldn't have been an issue. And I didn't notice it putting the drive in because the case face has to be removed to get to the screw that allows the drive cage to be freed. Part of that aforementioned "more effort" getting the drive in.

So, after pretty much a repeat of what I had already done, only with the drive in the second bay, I was back on track and loading software. Works good as a DVD player so far, but unfortunately it did not come with blank media (a surprise), so I cannot yet test the writing ability. However, I am eager to do so, because my system backups are presently taking 4 700MB CDs, which is a pain. It will be nice to be down to 1 DVD for my backups.

Tomorrow I will have to partake of my Christmas Best Buy gift cards to acquire some writable DVD media.