Pageygeeza
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2009
- Posts
- 319
- Likes
- 10
Right, where to begin.
Found out an old external DRX-800UL a short while back and it worked ok, couldn't get firewire to work, but I thought that was just a driver issue. Yesterday and today it started giving me a lot of bother, so I thought i'd open her up again and give it a blast with a low pressure compressor. This time I just had it plugged in so the drive was easily accessible. Basically when trying to rip, the disc would spin, the light would come one to say it's reading then go out instantly. Considering I've got another two optical drives in perfect working order floating about, I thought I'd swap it with a good one. And lo, the other drive started acting exactly the same. I was fortunate to receive another external optical drive, so took that apart and put the Sony drive into the other external unit and it worked! By doing this, I've found out that the USB to IDE interface at the back of the external unit can control any optical drive, (I always thought they were drive specific.)
Basically, If you're using an external optical drive, (the ones that use the 5.25" drives) and it buggers up, don't throw it away, it may not be the drive. I know they're cheap, but some old drives are probably more reliable than new drives for ripping.
If there is anything anyone else can add to this, I'd be grateful.
Also, I've been looking at USB to IDE adapters so changing over drives is more simple. The ones I've been looking at only have a dongle, are there any good quality ones about that also include a power supply?
Thanks.
Found out an old external DRX-800UL a short while back and it worked ok, couldn't get firewire to work, but I thought that was just a driver issue. Yesterday and today it started giving me a lot of bother, so I thought i'd open her up again and give it a blast with a low pressure compressor. This time I just had it plugged in so the drive was easily accessible. Basically when trying to rip, the disc would spin, the light would come one to say it's reading then go out instantly. Considering I've got another two optical drives in perfect working order floating about, I thought I'd swap it with a good one. And lo, the other drive started acting exactly the same. I was fortunate to receive another external optical drive, so took that apart and put the Sony drive into the other external unit and it worked! By doing this, I've found out that the USB to IDE interface at the back of the external unit can control any optical drive, (I always thought they were drive specific.)
Basically, If you're using an external optical drive, (the ones that use the 5.25" drives) and it buggers up, don't throw it away, it may not be the drive. I know they're cheap, but some old drives are probably more reliable than new drives for ripping.
If there is anything anyone else can add to this, I'd be grateful.
Also, I've been looking at USB to IDE adapters so changing over drives is more simple. The ones I've been looking at only have a dongle, are there any good quality ones about that also include a power supply?
Thanks.
