NEC ND-6750, plus determining an optical drive's slave/master status

[megasad]

I apologise if this is a simple question, but I have not used Windows since '98 and so I'm unsure of how to find this out in XP.

All I need to find out is whether the optical drive (a GCC-4240N) in my friend's Compaq Presario 900 is set as master or slave. I assume that there is a place within Windows I can look, I just don't know where.

Second of all, the reason for me needing to know this is that he wants to change out the optical drive for an NEC ND-6750 DVD±RW drive. From what I have read online, these drives come set as slave drives.

I'm hoping his machine is expecting a slave drive as I assume it will then be a simple swap and restart? As I say, I do not know XP, only really OS X. Will I need to install any drivers for the drive or does Windows include those as part of itself nowadays?

On a slight tangent, I changed the LCD display on this same laptop for my friend a few days ago and that was easy enough. From the manual I downloaded, the optical drive seems even easier. Compared to an iBook, this Compaq was a whole load easier to disassemble and work on... And how does my friend pay me back? He splits the cost of Windows XP Home OEM with me (that I pay only £25 for it), that I can install it on my new iMac in September, that I might play games at university... Hoo-hah.

Thanks for any help.

 

[cubby1223]

They're usually set to cable select by default.

Anyways, if it doesn't work the first time, just change jumper settings and try again. There is no harm if it is not properly configured.

 

[megasad]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Anyways, if it doesn't work the first time, just change jumper settings and try again. There is no harm if it is not properly configured.

Do laptop optical drives have physical jumpers like 3.5" hard drives, or are they firmware jumpers instead? I have no experience of the latter...

 

[Harvey]

Update - I just noticed it's a laptop drive. Looking, but meanwhile, here's the manual.

Back again. There does not appear to be a jumper to select Master, Slave or Cable Select. It may be that laptops don't use the setting because they can't handle enough drives to need the distinction.