Replacing laptop optical drive (DVD, blu-ray) - what do I need to know?

Are laptop optical drives always compatible? Do they come in different physical sizes? Are there any specs I need to match on the new drive, such as whether it has SATA?

If so, how would I find these specs for my dell? (the details don't seem to be in the users manual or service manual)

Background:

I have a Dell 1720 and want to buy a new optical drive for it - I'm replacing an existing DVD drive with a blu-ray drive.

I almost just bought the first laptop drive I found on eBay, when it occurred to me they might not all be standard in size/interface/power/etc.

The Dell service manual has clear instructions on how to remove/replace it, looks easy:

but no specs on what kind of drive I'd need to replace it with.

2 Answers

as far as i've seen, laptops still seem to use the old ATAPI interface which is pata based, and from the images of a supposedly compatable drive on amazon (TS-L632) it looks identical to the standard pata drives on my thinkpads - i can easily pop the one on my 3 year old laptop into a significantly older system so its a fairly common standard- so its very likely any drive that meets the atapi standards will work

To be sure you can look it up using a system information software like SIW - There should be a wmi/wmic way to do it as well

Alternately you can look at the make/model of your current drive - you can check this from device manager - and google what its specs are

EDIT: this is the specs for the drive that model is supposed to come with - as long as the replacement drive matches up, it should work - the form factor is standard, just make sure its ATAPI as opposed to slim line sata (which is a beast that's supposed to exist, but i have never seen)

Regarding physical size: all laptop ODs usually come in two sizes - "usual" and "slim". "Slims" are thinner, and because of that often have something peculiar about disk loading and/or ejecting. Other physical dimensions are usually the same.

Of course, some laptops have customized OD physical designs (mostly the ultra-portables with ODs), and their shapes/sizes will require exactly the same physical model for replacement.