Is it possible to power and use an optical drive from the HDD bay

[shadowsgleam]

Okay so here is the thing. I have a laptop that's about 4 or 5 years old and the optical drive went bad on it. Now I don't really need an optical drive for general use so I don't want to go through the hassle of replacing it especially since it's an Everex laptop and Everex no longer exists to my knowledge. But my problem is my hard drive has been formatted and I need to install Windows back onto the laptop.

The issues I've run into thus far aside from the optical drive not working is that this particular laptop cannot boot off a USB drive it's not even in the BIOS functionality. So my question is since I have 2 HDD slots in the hard drive bay and only one of them is populated can I use the ports for the second one to run 2 SATA male to female cables to a DVD drive temporarily just to install Windows? I would just try it but I don't have the cables and don't want to waste my time and money if it's not possible. I've searched all over and all I can find is guides on how to use your optical bay as another HDD but I don't need to do that. I just want to get this old machine running to give to someone else to use.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[hpfreak]

That's an interesting idea. I can't say I've done it before. But you could take the hard drive out and pop it into another computer. Install it on the drive. Pop it back into the laptop. And it should work.

 

[shadowsgleam]

I tried that already it just ends in BSOD during boot up.

 

[Branden]

that might work, but if you don't want to risk wasting $ then nobody could advise you to try unless they've done the same thing themselves successfully, and being such an odd idea i doubt anybody had tried it before.

i think your only solution guaranteed to work is to purchase a replacement ODD.
(and if you really don't want to spend $ then return the ODD when you're done)

 

[RetiredChief]

I think you will find that a "regular" Sata 5 1/4 in ODD power requirements are the same as a 3 1/2 " HDD in that both use the +12V and the +5 V while the Slimline ODD meant to go into the laptop are Probably just +5 V, But Not sure. The sata Power connector in the HDD bay Most likely only has the +5 V wired up. Most likely it omitts the +12 V as 2 1/2 in HDDs only require the +5 V, so why go to the trouble (and cost) of routing the +12 V.

 

[shadowsgleam]

Do you think it would be possible to run the data from a 5 1/4 ODD to the HDD bay and give it power from a desktop power supplies SATA power plug? I've looked before and since Everex is no longer around I don't think you can buy the original optical drive.

 

[Alabalcho]

I would go with @HpFreak' idea, but instead of full install, remove the drive from "donor" PC after first reboot. That's way, no this-particular-PC-specific drivers will be installed, and you should be able to continue with install.

 

[smorizio]

laptop hard drives are a standard form factor you should be able to pop the front plate off of the old cd-rom and put it on a new one. most vendors have more then one cd-rom or hard drive. the other easy way is use microsoft tools that vendors like dell use and make your own ghost image. all you need is a usb to sata laptop cable and plug the laptop hard drive into a desktop and ghost the image. on the image or drive would be a restore partion like dell or hp uses. if not all you need is a boot floppy and a network connecton to use ghost to reimage the laptop hard drive from a network drive.

 

[shadowsgleam]

I'll give that a shot alabalcho. Never considered taking it out during the install to prevent drive conflicts.

If that doesn't work I'll see about ghosting and such but I don't have a floppy drive so hopefully I can get the windows installation to work from another computer.

Thanks for all the input folks