Hi I’m thinking of buying this:

hxxp://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10065419&logon=&langid=EN

change hxxp to htpp

My question is on my computer I have a cd-r and a dvd-rom, I have never installed a hardware device before, but after having people install them for myself, I am anxious to try.. anyway can I just take out the dvd-rom and connect this dvd-rw to it and bingo that’s it?

I’m hoping that would work. Does anyone know if it will?

ok my follow up would be how do i know if my current drive is IDE?

Sure you can do it. What is your computer and its ops system? Is your current drive a combination CD-R/RW//DVD-ROM or separate drives? The new drive should have full instructions. Your customer materials for the computer you have should have info on opening the case up and maybe evn for installin a replacement drive(s).

It's not quite that simple. Normally, there are 2 IDE channels on a motherboard, a primary & a secondary, & each channel can accept 2 devices, a master & slave. On the back of each device (HDD or optical drive) is a jumper that has to be set...normally thery're labeled something like MA (master), SL (Slave), or CS (Cable Select).

Here are a few of general rules to follow for setting up your drives:

1. avoid pairing up 2 HDDs on the same cable/channel
2. avoid pairing up 2 optical drives on the same cable/channel
3. when possible, setup the burner as the 2ndary master
4. never use the CS (cable select) setting

Since the DVD burner can handle ALL your optical drive duties, you really don't need the others. If you only go with 2 devices, the setup is simple:

primary master = HDD
primary slave = none
2ndary master = DVD burner
2ndary slave = none

If you wanna keep one of the other drives, I suggest keeping the DVD-ROM & setting up as follows:

primary master = HDD
primary slave = DVD-ROM
2ndary master = DVD burner
2ndary slave = none

R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero
"Viva La Raza"

Yes, it's an easy change.
Remove the old drive, check the plugging on the back.
Make sure that the new drive is plugged the same as the old one.
Install the new drive and make sure the cables are inserted correctly.
You're finished.

Thanks jam, ham30, jimDZ for your replies. This puts it into perspective for me. I’ll just try un-connecting the IDE DVD-rom and try connecting this IDE DVD-RW and hope it works.