CuleHand Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I bought a used I/O Magic External CDRW drive today and Im not able to figure out how to remove the cdrw drive from the case. Im going to replace the cdrw with a dvdrw, but they made this thing so its nearly impossible to get the old drive out. there are no screws on the side holding the drive in place like you see in a desktop tower. in fact there is nothimg visable you can see holding it in so it must be secured using the screw holes on the bottom. and there are no access points on the bottom of the outside case to allow you to get to any screws. In fact it looks like this was designed to keep you from being able to switch drives.Im pretty experienced in building and working on computers but this problem has me stumped. anyone worked on these I/O portables before? any help appriciated. Luke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Hello,Are there rubber feet on one side of the external case? If so, those might need to be removed to expose the screw holes.Regards,Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Couldn't find any info about this specific I/O Magic device (although they do actually make an Enclosure interestingly enough).But..I found something else that might lead to an answer:Please Help: How to open Enclosure (Magic GigaBank hard drive 250GB) at MYCE Beta site and found the following regarding an external hard drive by the same company. Maybe they are similar in their case structure? These are not screw less cases! If you look at the back of the case (where the USB & Power plug in as well as the on/off switch) pry off the metal template (Only held on with 2 sided tape) you will expose the 2 Phillips screws required to remove the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Nice catch, Fran - I'll bet that's it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuleHand Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 @ LilBambi ... the model case I have is a little older than the one in mcr.com topic, but I took the rear panel off and there were no screws to release the drive. But I could see into the space under the drive and see that there are 4 places where the drive attaches to the case, but its blind in as far as seeing how to detach them. The I/O designers went to a great deal of trouble to construct this drive so that an owner couldnt service it.@ goretsky ... no rubber feet or any other place that you can get access from the outside of the case to any screws.Well, my $5.00 bargin is what is, and Im not inclined to put too much more time and effort into upgradeing it. Its like new and works perfectly as it is so maybe Ill leave it that way. I just hate to admit defeat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Oh, well. Was worth a try. Sadly, many companies make it difficult or downright impossible to make use of their enclosures for other hard drives, CD/DVD drives, etc., without breaking the enclosure in the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Luke, I spent a bit more than $5. I just bought a portable DVD burner from NewEgg for $30. I hooked it up to all the computers to see if it was recognized and it was so I'm happy. My husband's old all-in-one only has a CD-ROM, as does his very old Dell Optiplex (700MHz dinosaur) and my netbook doesn't have an optical drive. Those three had a need for an external DVD burner rather than just the external CD burners I was using.If the burner dies in my old HP laptop or my newest slim eMachines tower, I have no intention of taking either computer apart. I'll just hook up the external. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 @ LilBambi ... the model case I have is a little older than the one in mcr.com topic, but I took the rear panel off and there were no screws to release the drive. But I could see into the space under the drive and see that there are 4 places where the drive attaches to the case, but its blind in as far as seeing how to detach them. The I/O designers went to a great deal of trouble to construct this drive so that an owner couldnt service it.@ goretsky ... no rubber feet or any other place that you can get access from the outside of the case to any screws.Well, my $5.00 bargin is what is, and Im not inclined to put too much more time and effort into upgradeing it. Its like new and works perfectly as it is so maybe Ill leave it that way. I just hate to admit defeat.Optical drives are so cheap these days. $20-22 deals on internal DVD-RW can be found almost everywhere. I don't know why you would bother to through all that trouble just to swap out the drive.As Bambi has already said - those external enclosures are sometimes difficult to disassemble..... been there done that. For me personally, it's not worth my time. I would rather spend the extra $20 and call it a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Luke-Can you post a picture of the drive? Maybe one of us has worked with the particular enclosure that you have.Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuleHand Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 (edited) Optical drives are so cheap these days. $20-22 deals on internal DVD-RW can be found almost everywhere. I don't know why you would bother to through all that trouble just to swap out the drive.I realise it sounds foolish, but A] I have plenty optical drives on-hand and B] I just bought a Western Digital WDTV rig from ebay and wanted a USB CD/DVD player to plug into the WDTV, and C] Ive already spent over $200usd this month on computer parts, supplies and cases etc, and D] this looked like a real easy project at first glance and E] it pissed me off and I wanted revenge on those snot nosed I/O designers that created this thing and F] I knew if I put this on the shelf thinking I would get to it later ... well you know how that goes.So this is what I did ... took a dvdrw , got the screw pattern off the bottom and took an exacto knife and dug out the bottom of the case to expose the screw holes. Turns out that it wasnt that hard because the covering wasnt thst thick aroung the screw heads and took me only about 15 mins to make the swap from that point.Hows that for a success story? For 1.5 hours and a 30 mile round trip car ride to pick it up I saved a whooping $30usd. LOL! Hey, I had fun doing it so thats worth something aint it?Luke Edited March 5, 2011 by CuleHand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuleHand Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 Luke, I spent a bit more than $5...blah blah.. I have no intention of taking either computer apart. I'll just hook up the external.Hey LizYou need to get a little experience pokeing aroung the inside of a computer. Its really not that tough to figure out. Besides, its FUN and it Gives You Grey Hairs ... and consumes large portions of your otherwise dull life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Luke, I've done my share of poking, prodding, removing (and cursing when I bruise knuckles and cut fingers). Since Nov., I'm dealing with a sore wrist and hand. I finally went to the orthopedist in Feb. and now involved in occupational therapy so I'm not doing any digging inside computers. That's on hold until I have two usable hands again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 If you had fun in the learning, and some comedy along the way, it was worth it. :DBesides you figured it out ... it didn't beat you! Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuleHand Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 If you had fun in the learning, and some comedy along the way, it was worth it.Yeah Bambi, and I e-cycled ... I guess thats a real word - I learned it from Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 LOL! Good one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Hows that for a success story? For 1.5 hours and a 30 mile round trip car ride to pick it up I saved a whooping $30usd. LOL! Hey, I had fun doing it so thats worth something aint it?LukeOK... wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense. You would rather drive 1.5 hours to get a $5 optical drive instead of buying a dvd-rw drive?? The way gas prices are lately - I'm surprised you would choose that option over getting a new one.Well whatever, if you learned something I guess it's worth it. Although I can't imagine how you would apply what you've learned in the future, because chances of running across that exact same external drive model is slim to none. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuleHand Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 (edited) ....way gas prices are lately - I'm surprised you would choose that option... Thats 1.5 hrs total time including swapping the drive32 mpg toy-yoda, and it was only an xtra 2 mi. from a store I wanted to go to anyway ...2 birds-1 stone.If I hadnt needed the portable usb drive for the WDTV rig anyway I wouldnt have bothered with it in the firstplace. Ive got somewhere around 3000 movies and tv series and at least half are on cd and dvd so I had to get a usb portable one way or another to make it worth while having the WDTV. The other option was to put all those video files back on a hdd and that was never trally an option.So in the end it was a small amt of gas and I completed the equipment list I needed to make the WDTV thing happen. It may sound a bit convoluted but in the end I got what I needed, made use of a dvddrw I already had that was just collecting dust. Was it worth it? Who knows ... Edited March 5, 2011 by CuleHand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Ya done great Luke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Amen to that - and we expect a follow-up report on how you like it too, Luke! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuleHand Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 Hey Doc. I like it just fine so far. I plugged the usb into one of my desktops tonight and played a movie and it works exactly as it should, smoothe and quite. I put an almost new Memorex cdrw/dvdrom in the I/O case.The real test will be if it plays with the Western Digital WDTV rig I just bought. Since I dont have a big screen tv yet Ill test w/ one of my 22w lcd monitors. Ill do that tommorrow, but Im confident there wont be any prob. Later this year Ill buy myself a 28 or 32in hdtv, and I already have a nice little 5.1 surround sound speaker set to use w/ it. This is a budget driven project and the hdtv is the last component I need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 You're in good company with those budget-driven issues, Luke. There's a whole lot of it going around. Back at the end of '07 I got laid off. I was lucky; I got a nice severance package. I decided I needed to buy a toy with a part of it and managed to find a "loss-leader" 37" HDTV at Staples (of all places!) for under $400. It came home with me and has been working great ever since. At the time, a 37" HDTV ran in the $900-$1100 range so I was expecting to find some fault that I'd have to live with, but it's really been a champ.Wish I could remember the name of the manufacturer (or at least the name on the front of the unit) but I just can't... Not all the deals are carp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 The PA Dutch in me will not let me replace anything that still works. As a result, we have 4 old working analog tvs in our home. The one in the basement is a console in a big wooden cabinet, bought in 1985. I don't think that will ever die because it isn't used too often. The 18" in the kitchen which is used very hard is from 1991! I'd love to replace it with a lightweight, flat 19". The tvs are so old that all they have are cable input plugs. As a result to hook up DVD players to them, I've had to buy RF modulators so I can use the red, white and yellow plug. Between the cable box for the digital signal, the RF box and the DVD player there are almost as many wires around the tv as a computer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuleHand Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 The PA Dutch in me will not let me replace anything that still works.There are a few people like that still around, and I guess Im one of those . And it doesnt have any thing to do w/ PA of the dutch in my case - my parents and grand parents survived the Great Depression and that left a indelable imprint on my generation. Of course its not like that any more, we live in a throwaway era where you simply buy a new one when the old one breaks or a newer model is introduced. But I guess Im a dinosaur, due for extiction, but I still actullay like to FIX things. Even old I/O Magic portables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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