Thinkpad dvd-rom issues

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

I've got an ibm thinkpad (770x) sitting here... it doesn't like discs in it's drive. You put a cd in and it's got about a 5% chance of working. I actually managed to get 2k installed on it last night (only cd I've managed to get it to read in a few months). I've looked into actual ibm replacement drives but I'm not going to pay $80 for a cd-rom or $200 for the exact same drive... which leaves me looking for suggestions. It's got a usb port I could use for a drive, however if I do that will it be able to boot off that if I need to install a new OS? I'm just looking for suggestions on what to do... cause as of right now I can't get it to take the cd's with my network card drivers on it (either my wired or my wireless one) so I'm pretty much stuck as to what I can do to get this thing going.

 

[IceDigger]

Basically your cd drive is dead. The only thing you can do is as you said, replace it. Laptop parts are not cheap. As to getting an external usb one you could do that, your bios might be able to boot off it or you could use a floppy to do so if you have a floppy drive.

 

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

yeah that's kinda what I figured -_-;

 

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

well upon doing a bit of price checking... it seems you can't find any external cd-rom drives for cheaper than $80... and if I'm gonna pay that much I might as well get an internal one. Any other suggestions for getting stuff over onto this computer so I can atleast use my network card(s) until I can buy my new laptop?

 

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

The issue has been temporarily circumvented... via a digital camera lol.