Hey I have some spare CD and DVD rom drives, but they are not connected to the computer. What is the best way of testing them and how? Thanks.

Do you know how to take the body of your computer apart enough so that you can access things on the inside of it?

Kind of yes.

Okay, thanks! I got a little bit of an idea as to where you are coming from with what you know just because of the way that you answered. If it were me, and I wanted to test those sort of things, I would open up the cabinet, body or whatever you want to call it and plug the drives onto the cords that are on the existing drives duplicating the way that I see that it is already plugged in or attached. Or, I would find the extra cords for attaching the drive, if they are available, also duplicating the way that I see that another drive is attached and do the testing without have to actually mount to drive to the computer body.

Sometimes extra cords are available if you have extra slots where an additional drive can be attached.

To be safe, I would unplug the computer before attaching the drive to the cords. I would also be careful not to touch any of the cards that are in the computer, whether the computer is plugged in or not.

Doing those things should do the trick.

But, perhaps someone else will come along with a better idea, though...

For one, the drives could be SATA, eSATA, (IDE,PATA, ATA), USB and the computer needs the same interface. IDE,PATA,ATA) are the same.

Generally swapping is a good idea providing you have the right interface. Extension cables are OK too. There are single that will convert USB to all of the above interfaces and are designed to help someone swap or test a drive. They are about $40.00.

If they are IDE.. you have to make certain the jumpers are set the same. The drive cable may have a "twist" in it. Usually these drives are set as master, but it will be a slave drive.

I'm confused now lol. I have 4 drives that I want to sell but I need to see if they work. Unplugging my ones in my computer could cause problems but is that the only way? The drives I want to test are a Sony CRX320EE, a Cyberdrive CW099D, a BTC DRW 1016IB and a Philips CDD4801/81.

Here is an example product:

USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter - Portable - Flexible - Win 2k/XP and Mac! (http://www.usbfirewire.com/Parts/rr-usb-dsc5.html)

Thanks but that would be pointless. Would cost too much and I want to make money from them. Thanks ever so much though.

Is there any other way?

Just turn off computer. Discharge yourself to the case. Pull connections and insert into other player. Boot. Check. Turn off. Repeat until done.

I think they are different connections though?

Well, find the model player in your computer under properties in the device manager and find the other models and determine the interfaces for all of them from their data sheet.

Lately new computers are shipping with SATA interfaces.

So yes, that poses a problem.

Yer mine is SATA :(

So, the converter is the only way except maybe an IDE card, but you really don't want one of them. Sorry.

Another "possibility" is if you happen to have an external hardrive with a USB/firewire connection which has an ATA drive inside. They never seem tell you on the box.

Just sell them as no means to test, but will refund $ if they don't work.