Laptop optical drives - Are they generally universal?

[Doomguy]

Are laptop optical drives usually universal? Say, would I generally be able to use a drive from a Dell, in a Compaq/HP or IBM laptop?

I know sub-portable notebooks use proprietary size drives, but for a standard sized laptop, can you pretty much put any brand drive in one?

Thanks.

 

[myocardia]

They're generally all the same size.

 

[pcgeek11]

You have to be careful as some are set for master and some slave. Some are even configurable as either master or slave.

 

[corkyg]

The internal drive is usually universal, but the carrier is often proprietary. I say usually and often because there are exceptions to every rule.

 

[WackyDan]

No- you can't swap a dell drive to a Lenovo, to a hp....Same drive but different packaging/connectors.

 

[Jiggz]

From experience, they are all identical except for the face bezel. Depending on the design of the laptop unit itself, sometimes it will either shrink about 1/4 of an inch or stick out as much.

 

[Nocturnal]

Yes but the front face that you see on most aren't.

 

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: WackyDan
No- you can't swap a dell drive to a Lenovo, to a hp....Same drive but different packaging/connectors.

I've done this before on many occasions. It's possible. The drive itself is standardized. However there are harnesses that sometimes move the connector to one side or the other. The harnesses are always removable so that you can install a new drive. It's just the face of the drive that won't fit properly 9/10 times.

 

[corkyg]

We are all saying roughly the same thing. The difference is the drive carrier, caddy, adapter - whatever you choose to call it. However! Youcan, in many cases, remove the drive from the carrier/caddy/assembly and replace it with a new bare drive.