# Slimline IDE Combo-Drive

## Nicias

It looks like the drive in my htpc might have just crapped out, so I'm looking for a replacement. However, I'm having a hard time finding Slim IDE combo drives. (I'd settle for a DVD reader.) Newegg, Fry's and Tigerdirect don't have any! Am I just asking for too old hardware?

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## erik258

Ever use google shopping?  It works particularly well to find the 'going rate' for products.  I found a number of slimline dvd burners there (i'd imagine every new optical device supports writing dvds)

http://www.google.com/products?q=slimline+dvd+burner&scoring=p

Be wary though; a number of those appear to be laptop drives.  Some of them to purport to be for desktops.  

Good luck!

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## Nicias

Thanks! Most of those are PATA, but some are in fact IDE.

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## erik258

You must mean SATA.  IDE == PATA.  

Glad it could help!

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## Nicias

Yes of course.

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## Nicias

Turns out I actually want a bare laptop drive. I took the drive out, and it doesn't have a standard PATA/molex plug combo, rather a single plug like [url="http://benryves.com/images/toshiba/cdrom_connector.jpg"]this[/url]. There is a small adaptor card in the back that converts that plug into a PATA/molex pair.

I'm looking around, and I've found a few options, but nothing at a store I've even heard of before.

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