Dane.Kouttron

Laptop Cd-Rom --> Desktop Cd-Rom

Quick project: Make a Lapptop CD Rom Drive work on a normal (40 pin) IDE Mobo

Whats the Difference? 

Standard IDE [for a normal desktop motherboard] is 40 pins. The pinout is shown below. 

Why?

Building a small form factor pc for another project [home music system] and a normal CD-ROM drive is 4x the size. The laptop drive is 1-2x read speed, but thats fine for playing audio cd's. Its also a quick ghetto mod if you want to add a cdrom to your car pc

What do i need? 
            - Working CD Rom drive with ATA compatible pinout (non-scsi)
            - Old Ide Cable
            -Voltmeter (continuity)
            -Solder, Iron, 45 minutes

How can I make one?

Step 1.	Get the Parts	Cut a working IDE cable  and begin, wire by wire matching up parts of the standard IDE pinout  to mini ide pinout
step 2	Check if the parts work	Using a multimeter with connectivity sensor (beeps when wires touch), go through each line to ensure connectivity
step 3	Break out the silver solder	Solder in each wire to open solderpoints on the drive. note, thin silver solder works a heck of a lot better.
Step 4.	Power up	power up device (5v) to see if drive opens/ closes)
Step 5	throw it in an old computer/ ide-> usb adapter	Check if it actually works

Table of 40 pin IDE and 44 pin IDE

Image of PC booting from laptop drive

Dane.Kouttron
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
Electrical & Electrical Power
631.978.1650