need new dvd/cdrw drive

gallea · Joined: Mar 28, 2008 Posts: 2

This may be a stupid question but I need to replace a broken drive and was wondering if any laptop cd drive will fit into a Toshiba Sattelite 2450 laptop or are there different sizes for diffent brands of laptop?

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2377

All are about the same size. One thing to be aware of, some have a straight front and others have a curved front. Also some eject out and you put the CD in a tray while others the CD is put into a slot. I believe, but I'm not sure that you take the faceplate off and attach it to the new drive.
Look in hardware manager to see the brand currently in your Toshiba and I'd think if you looked at current models of the same brand they would work well.

xavierx · Joined: Nov 06, 2004 Posts: 3314

I was trying to find the answer, but the only thing I could find that is different frim zlim is that some laptops require the cd drive to be configured as either master or slave, and some require it be configured as cable-select. Just make sure that your new drive does whatever your current one does. According to this thread, that can be a problem (and it says "Most Toshiba notebooks require the ODD to be set to master", but verify what yours needs yourself!). Oh, and I highly recommend not using aluminum foil as one poster there recommends!