Hard Drive and DVD Burner External caddy enclosures

A Gray · 10 Jan 2022

Hi Bobkn, I'm a bit dubious in view of some of the earlier comments, besides at over £22,it would be cheaper to buy a whole new external drive

hsehestedt · 10 Jan 2022

bobkn said:

This was a fairly hasty look, but it probably would work with the optical drive: Hard Drive Enclosure, 9.5mm USB3.0 SATA External Portable Optical Hard Drive Case Adapter CD Drive Enclosure ODD/HDD Hard Disk Case(black) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Unfortunately, that won't work. The drive in question has a non-standard SATA connector.

bobkn · 10 Jan 2022

hsehestedt said:

Unfortunately, that won't work. The drive in question has a non-standard SATA connector.

I have the same drive (DA-8A6SH) as the OP, from a defunct Asus laptop. (No HP stickers.) It includes a similar stamped steel mounting bracket (removable). It's made by Philips Lite-on. The interface isn't the standard one on 3.5" or 2.5" HDs.

Do most 9.5 mm thick laptop optical drives use the HD style connector, or the one in the DA-8A6SH?

I see that there are many adapters available to allow use of a 9.5mm 2.5" HD in a slot of that type.

Regardless of all that, I'd have to agree with "A Gray" that the economics may not justify the cost of an external enclosure, even if it works.

hsehestedt · 10 Jan 2022

That's interesting. All the laptops I've worked with have had standard SATA connectors on the optical drives, but I must admit that it's a limited number of laptops where I pulled out the optical drives. Usually, I do that for the purpose of removing an optical drive and replacing it with a HDD caddy that has the form of the optical drive to allow the optical drive to be replaced with either a HDD or SSD. I simply find myself no longer having a use for optical drives any longer.

A Gray · 12 Jan 2022

Thanks for all your comments. I think it's time to conclude this. I've ordered a SATA enclosure for the hard drive. It's a 1TB drive so worth while re-using it. I'll just forget about the DVD burner

Berton · 12 Jan 2022

The internal ODD on Notebooks do have a different SATA connection. Rather than futz with them I bought a new USB External drive that also accommodates the USB-C, only about 40USD.

hsehestedt · 13 Jan 2022

@A Gray,

Berton was completely correct on this point.

I need to eat some humble pie. It looks like I gave you some inaccurate information. If you have not tossed that DVD drive yet, hold off!

I was completely wrong about the optical drive connector. In my head, I was sure that this was a standard SATA connector. It just out of coincidence happened that I came across one of my old optical drives today nd I glanced at it and it has the same connector you have. So, I pulled out another one that I have - same thing.

EDIT: Confirmed - Laptop optical drives are either 9.5mm or 12.7mm thick.

I've looked on amazon and external enclosures for DVD drives can be found for around $14 (US Dollars). Note that a whole new drive can be purchased for about $10 more.

One thing to verify before purchasing an external enclosure: Laptop optical drives come in 2 different thicknesses. The more common "this" drive is 9.5mm (I can't recall what the other thickness is. I think it was something like 12.5 or 12.7mm). Check the specs for your drive before you get an enclosure.

Again, my apologies for the wrong info. My memory was completely wrong on this matter.

A Gray · 14 Jan 2022

I've decided to revisit the DVD burner enclosure problem and have tracked down one on e bay which appears to have the correct SATA connection. It is not expensive, a lot cheaper than a complete external burner so should be worth it if it works.
I have got an enclosure for the hard drive and it is working fine