Drive replacement for LG External Blu-ray Disc Rewriter.

[AmishParadise]

I've been using a LG External Blu-ray Disc Rewriter for years. On my second one now. I connect it to my laptop's eSATA port. The first of these drives I purchased lasted quite a long time. Purchased another one used (like new) a few years ago. It's been performing beautifully. Just recently it started giving me trouble.

Since my laptop only has USB 2.0 I really wanted to continue using the eSATA port. I couldn't find any external Blu-ray drives online that support eSATA though. I did find a couple drive caddy's that offer eSATA connectivity. So I was about to purchase one of those in addition to a desktop Blu-ray drive when it dawned on me that I didn't need to purchase a drive caddy. Both of my LG External Blu-ray Disc Rewriters are basically just fancy drive caddys. And the rest they say is history! :-P

There are 2 screws on the back securing the top of the casing. The top of the casing just slides off once the screws are removed. The drive is secured to the bottom of the casing. Just 2 screws to remove there. The back half of the actual Blu-ray drive slides into an internal casing that contains the circuit board, fixed eSATA connection facing the front, external connections facing the back.

There are 2 screws that secure the drive to the internal casing. Purchased a LG 14x SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter (WH14NS40) for $55. That got delivered today. The holes didn't line up per securing the drive to the internal casing. Easy fix. Just drilled new holes in the internal casing. I wasn't able to secure the drive and internal casing to the bottom external casing, but that wasn't a deal breaker.

I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Connected the drive to the laptop once again. Windows 7 detected the drive installing it, then assigning the drive letter. Tested the drive without issue. It's working great. End result shown below.



The top drive is the original one I purchased. I'm going to swap the drive out in that one as well. Should have done this back when that drive gave out on me. Figured I'd post about this here in the event anyone else has one of these old LG External Blu-ray Disc Rewriters lying around with a bad drive. Simple enough to swap out the drive.