Help with sony vaio cd/dvd drive needed - not reading anything.

KillerWatt

elsien wrote: »

I thought I had - wouldn't the recovery disc I tried be bootable? It didn't do anything, anyway.

Providing the boot order in the BIOS is set correctly, (ie the CD/DVD drive is set to be the first boot device) then yes it should have worked.

elsien

How would I check that, please? I haven't deliberately meddled with anything, so if that's the standard setting then that's what it should still be on.

Edit - could one of you nice people recommend somewhere idiot proof where I could look for a suitable new drive without accidentally buying completely the wrong thing?
Thanks.

spannerzone

As I mentioned before, remove the old drive and look at the connections on it then compare to the links I gave earlier which show the two types.

That link again
http://www.laptopparts101.com/cd-dvd-optical-drive/

Failing that, take a picture and post it here for us to see and advise. From the info you gave plus some googling I'd say it's 95% certain you need a ATA/PATA drive rather than a SATA drive but you should check first before ordering.

It's really not a big deal, get a small cross headed/posidrive/watchmaker screwdriver, unscrew one screw as shown on the link above, remove the drive and tells us what you find.

Providing you're careful and not a complete hamfisted clumsy idiot you can do this simply.....

Then we can probably provide some links as to where and what to buy. ATA/PATA DVD laptop drives are fair less available nowadays.

elsien

Thanks - having an eye op tomorrow, so I'll be back later in the week when I can see what I'm doing!

elsien

I've taken the drive out, and it's the slim PATA connector type as you thought - replacing it didn't joggle it back into action either, so if you could give me recommendations for a replacement and where to get it from I'd appreciate it.
The other thing is that I didn't have to unscrew the bay to get it out, it's got a release/eject button on the side of the laptop. Which made checking it a lot easier, but I don't know if it will make it more complicated to find a replacement?

spannerzone

PATA / IDE laptop DVD drives are becoming harder to find now but I'd hope that one of these should fit, albeit not match the rest of the laptop possibly (the slot load obviously cannot have the Sony's facia fitted but other tray loaded drives might allow you to remove the Sony front facia and fit to the replacement dvd)

if you search for slimline laptop optical drive pata ide or similar you'll find very few new items for sale, ebay may be another option but I'd probably get a new one even if it doesn't match the colour of your laptop.

http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-dvd-rw-8x-slim-slot-loading-black-7F5J.html
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/248419
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/samsung-sn-t082a-8x-dvdr-6xdvdplusdl-4xdvd-dl-dvdplusrw-x8-rx6-x5-ram-slot-loading-slim-ide-black
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/49460/Toshiba-Slimline-8x-DVD-Writer-IDE-DVDRW-Black


When I fitted a replacement drive to a Sony laptop a year ago, I had to take off a little metal bracket from the old drive and fit to the new drive (the holes matched up perfectly as drives seem to have standard screw holes) - I can't provide a link to the drive I got as it's no longer sold.