Question Turn 5.75" internal CD Drive into external ?

[edzor]

I have an old internal CD drive that still works fine but I was looking for a cable that could work to turn it into an external drive without having to get a full shroud because of how expensive they are. I found this adapter and I wasn't sure if it would work for the drive.

 

[JeffreyP55]

5.4". Don't you want to use an enclosure? Don't care for the vertical style. Horizontal ones aren't cheap. Maybe check ebay.
https://www.amazon.com/Vantec-NST-5...tical+drive+enclosure,electronics,169&sr=1-28

 

[TerryLaze]

The link to your adapter shows a list of many different ones so not sure which one you mean, but all of them are for hdd which means that they will show the cd drive as a hard drive which will make it useless.

The main problem with what you want to do is going to be the power, unless you go relatively high in price the power delivery will be crap and possibly fail pretty quickly.
The best solution to this would be to get a molex extension cable and feed it outside the PC case to your CD from your PSU, if need be with a molex to sata power adapter, and if you do that you could also get a long sata cable and connect it normally to your mobo.

 

[JeffreyP55]

The link to your adapter shows a list of many different ones so not sure which one you mean, but all of them are for hdd which means that they will show the cd drive as a hard drive which will make it useless.

The main problem with what you want to do is going to be the power, unless you go relatively high in price the power delivery will be crap and possibly fail pretty quickly.
The best solution to this would be to get a molex extension cable and feed it outside the PC case to your CD from your PSU, if need be with a molex to sata power adapter, and if you do that you could also get a long sata cable and connect it normally to your mobo.

I believe the vertical case has a slot for the drawer to open and close. It wouldn't be advertised as an optical external drive case. It was cheap but I imagine it works. I don't like the setup but a least it is safer than hanging a dongle.

 

[TerryLaze]

I believe the vertical case has a slot for the drawer to open and close. It wouldn't be advertised as an optical external drive case. It was cheap but I imagine it works. I don't like the setup but a least it is safer than hanging a dongle.

I was talking about the link that the OP posted.
Your link shows something that is 130 pounds, that's super expensive.
You can get an external CD for about 20 or an external bluray for about 80 pounds...

 

[JeffreyP55]

I was talking about the link that the OP posted.
Your link shows something that is 130 pounds, that's super expensive.
You can get an external CD for about 20 or an external bluray for about 80 pounds...

Do you mean the drive and case? All enclosures will work with 5.25" drives, CD, DVD, Blu-ray and 4k Blu-ray. They are not format specific.
I gave you that link as a reference. I expected you to pick up the ball. Like I said check ebay.

 

[CountMike]

I have an old internal CD drive that still works fine but I was looking for a cable that could work to turn it into an external drive without having to get a full shroud because of how expensive they are. I found this adapter and I wasn't sure if it would work for the drive.

Which kind of "old internal CD" is it ? SATA or PATA/IDE ?

 

[Dragos Manea]

Adaptors for 3.5" hdd will not work on optical units, they will not be detected, i tried already, you need something special for optical units.

 

[JeffreyP55]

Adaptors for 3.5" hdd will not work on optical units, they will not be detected, i tried already, you need something special for optical units.
[/QUOte
When I installed my Pioneer 206 externally the Sata interface worked for me. The SATA interface and power supply are the same for optical and SATA hard drives. Back internally for now.

 

[TerryLaze]

When I installed my Pioneer 206 externally the Sata interface worked for me. The SATA interface and power supply are the same for optical and SATA hard drives. Back internally for now.

Sata and power connectors are the same but the firmware for optical differs from hdd, they are designed to do different things.
If your external connector can work with both then do the OP and everybody that will read this post a favor and tell us the model because that's a rarity.

 

[JeffreyP55]

It has been a long time since I ran it ex

Sata and power connectors are the same but the firmware for optical differs from hdd, they are designed to do different things.
If your external connector can work with both then do the OP and everybody that will read this post a favor and tell us the model because that's a rarity.

With no tray slot I ran it in an open case. It was many moons ago. I am down to one external case. Keep my backups externally so I just unplug the USB connector just-in-case. I don't think it is the case I used. There are multi use external cases on Amazon.