Optical Drive Installation

[Magnus Blade]

Hey there.

So, I plan on re-using my optical drive from my pre-built eMachines EL1360G desktop in my upcoming custom build, as advised in another topic I made a few weeks ago (I didn't want to necropost there, so I made a new thread). I do have one little concern, as I figured I'd try to get it addressed before my parts get here.

My question is: Do optical/DVD Drives automatically install themselves into the system once you've connected them into their respective ports with the power supply? Since I'm re-using it from a pre-built machine, I don't have any disc software to install it's drivers/etc. if it has any. It's about my only true concern while thinking about building this new machine, and since I was told I can re-use the drive, I assume it'll begin functioning immediately after it's hooked up and connected, but I just wanted to double check here.

 

[Homerboy]

The BIOS will see the drive and the OS will install it just fine. No drivers needed.

 

[Magnus Blade]

Oh, thanks for the quick response. That's great to hear. Now I'm pretty much worry free about my project now. =)

 

[VirtualLarry]

If it's an IDE or SATA CD/DVD-RW, then Windows (any modern Windows, 95 and newer) has an ATAPI driver built-in to the OS, which will install automatically, once the OS is installed, and the PC powered up with the drive connected.

Older OSes like Win3.1, needed ATAPI drivers, like MSCDEX.EXE and CDROM.SYS and stuff. But it's been years since most users needed to worry about things like that.

 

[XavierMace]

I think it's safe to assume he's not wanting to install 3.1.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I think it's safe to assume he's not wanting to install 3.1.

Hey, you never know. I got it in a VM.