DVD burner: "waiting for the target disc"

SteveJH200

You need to get the right one - take the side off the PC or open it up and see what type of connections are going to the drive. If it's a wide ribbon cable then it's IDE, otherwise it's SATA. You can order them from Play.com, Ebuyer, Amazon etc. What model Dell do you have? Look for the Service Tag number on the back too.

IDE drive http://www.ebuyer.com/173552-liteon-ihap122-22x-dvd-rw-dl-ram-ide-optical-drive-oem-ihap122-19

SATA drive http://www.ebuyer.com/176026-liteon-ihas124-19-24x-dvd-rw-dl-ram-sata-optical-drive-oem-ihas124-19

Minky2Slice

Hi Steve, thanks for being so kind to help!

I have a Dell Optiplex 745. From what I can see I think it should be SATA, but to be honest I am a bit scared to open up the PC myself! I think mine is the Small form one (http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_745techspecs.pdf)

From what I can tell, this looks like what I need?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Optiplex-745-SFF-DCCY-DVD-Rewriter-DVDRW-Drive-8c-/270721102811?pt=UK_Computing_Drives_Storage_CD_DVD_Drives_ET&hash=item3f083c33db

By the way, I'm not too fussed about getting the DVD writer drive ASAP, as I went out today to get some CD's to burn :-)

SteveJH200

Ah,there's me thinking you had a 'normal' size PC!! Yes, that drive is the correct one but it seems a bit expensive for a used one.

danthemoneysavingman

did you sort this in the end then?