Laptop Removable Storage Drives Guide
Besides hard disk, that always is a major storage device in every laptop, you can meet a number of
removable storage drives well known from desktop computers. As laptop is portable equipment and
the amount of place within is limited, usually there is only one drive installed. However, sometimes you can meet models with two or none at all additional drives, depending on their purpose. The
so-called "desktop replacement" models tend to have more drives and more other accessories as they
are supposed to fully replace your desktop computer. On the other side, there are very small laptops,
designed to be highly portable and light that contains none additional drives to reduce their weight
and overall dimensions. Some laptop models contain very functional universal bays, where you can
easily install floppy disk drive, CDROM, CDRW, DVD or even additional battery just like in some Dell laptops.
CD/DVD/Burners Drives
The most common type of drive you will find when buying refurbished laptop is a traditional CDROM or CDRW (CD burner). Because in notebook you cannot directly install second hard drive to move big amounts of data to other computer, CDRW is very useful and the most financial justified choice.
But today you have much bigger choice. You can buy DVD reader or DVD/CDRW combo drive instead. As DVD is mainly used to store movies, games, encyclopedias and educational software it is not much useful in laptop, however some people use it to watch movies during long and boring trips. It would also be useful if your laptop should serve as desktop replacement computer. However, if you would have to choose between DVD reader and CDRW drive, we strongly advise you to choose the latter. If you really need DVD, the best choice would be to put some extra money and buy a DVD/CDRW combo drive. Recently one more, very versatile but expensive option appeared: DVD-RW drives. They can read and write CD and DVD disks but at the time are installed only in high-end laptops.
FDD/ZIP Drives
In some older notebooks you can meet very old and today virtually useless 3.5" floppy disk drives (FDD), which are sometimes interchangeable with CDROM like in some IBM ThinkPad models. As a replacement for an obsolete FDD you can also buy Iomega ZIP drive that combines FDD flexibility with CDROM capacity.
How To Find Drive For Your Laptop Model
Since laptops mechanical design is not as standardized as in desktop computers, you have to look for drive specifically for your laptop brand and model. That's why it could sometimes be hard to find what you are looking for. Happily, there is quite big choice of new, used and refurbished drives for popular brands like Dell or IBM on laptop parts online resellers. You can also look for drive you need on manufacturer's site, although if refurbished laptop model you bought is no longer manufactured you probably won't find it.
Installation
In most cases it shouldn't be any problem to install new removable storage drive. If your laptop has a universal bay, just release a lock, and replace old drive with the new one. If it hasn't, don't worry too. In virtually every notebook, removable storage drive is designed as a separate module, assembled to the computer chassis with one or two screws. To find these screws you will sometimes have to open your laptop or at least remove the keyboard but with a bit of patience you will manage to do this for sure.
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