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Modify a USB HDD enclosure to work with a DVD drive (IDE)
Posted on January 31st, 2010 6 comments
USB IDE CD/DVD Drive Conversion
My current Dell Inspiron 530 came with a single DVD drive and no IDE ports. On a limited budget and needing to burn media on-the-fly, I wanted to figure out a way to use my older IDE Ben-q DVDRW drive. Using an old USB hdd drive enclosure, I’ll show you how.
Difficulty : EASY - SAFETY WARNING, Shock Hazard
Time: 10 – 20minutesParts List
1 – Generic USB IDE hard disk drive enclosure with accompanying usb cable and power supply
Tools Needed
1 – Phillps head tech screwdriver
If a USB IDE hard drive enclosure works for a hard drive, why wouldn’t it work for an IDE cd/dvd drive? And in fact, it does. Windows has all the supporting drivers to make the modification work and should automatically install them. For this modification, any generic USB IDE hard drive enclosure will do.
I blew the dust off of my old Rocketfish USB hdd enclosure and went to work.
Using a screwdriver, I took off the supporting case screws and front cover, then carefully removed the internal caddy up from the surrounding chassis.
Turn the caddy around and remove the hard drive if present, there should be four screws on either side of the caddy to remove with the screwdriver. Next, unscrew the two usb ide controller screws on the back side of the caddy and unhook any front button cables. You’ll need the controller to hook up to your cd/dvd drive.
The controller is now ready to connect to the dc/dvd drive. Connect the IDE and power cable to the back of the drive.
Now, you will want to find or make a proper enclosure for this dvd drive and controller. Otherwise you’ll run the risk of electric shock if you connect the power with the controller board exposed! I cannot be held responsible for someone shocking themselves because they didn’t heed the warning.
Enclosure ideas: Tupperware container, custom plexiglass box, actual dvd drive enclosure or etc.
Here I plugged in the cables to the new-found setup and let Windows automatically install the drivers. The USB dvd drive works as expected and I didn’t have to spend a dime!
In my situation, I placed the dvd drive with connected usb controller into the 5.25″ bay of my dell and plugged the drive into internal power. The controller’s usb cable was routed to the backside of my computer.
6 responses to “Modify a USB HDD enclosure to work with a DVD drive (IDE)”
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Simple but brilliant!!! Keep up the good work!
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What happened to the power supply for the original drive? I like your hack, but wonder if you could have kept the ability to provide power to the drive, instead of the internal power in your case? Just wondering, as this would be helpful for a netbook.
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The transformer/power supply to the enclosure can be plugged into the back of the controller board. Yes, it can be used with a laptop granted you have it.
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Wow, nice going, Alec! You’re making quite the run around the blogs these past couple days. I’m definitely going to have to take advantage of this idea since my PC is behind the couch I game on and I’ve been too lazy to buy an external drive to sit next to me.
Also, nice censoring of the BF2 CD, there.
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Lev – Glad you enjoyed it!
For all those that enjoy reverse engineering tear-downs, I’ve got a surprise this Monday. Stay tuned!
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I saw this mentioned LifeHacker, and upon realizing I had the parts to do it I had to try it! I’ve since stuffed the parts into an old Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive:
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