Windows 7: A real clanger

Just dropped a real clanger - I think. I sent for an optical drive to replace one in a fix I am doing and as the machine (Toshiba laptop) is only four years old didn't think to check the connection.

So am left with SATA new drive and a machine with an IDE socket. Does anyone know if there is such a thing as an adaptor to fit the new drive to get me out of a spot??

Not in a laptop - there just isn't room.

Thanks Kegobeer I was clutching at straws really eh?

Well onto Ebay methinks although I do have a couple of very old lappies at home maybe I might get lucky with one of them.

That sounds odd. A machine that was new 4 years ago shouldn't have PATA (IDE).

The Toshiba L550 in your spec list uses SATA optical drives, at least according to the repair info I see online.

Or are you referring to a different machine?

Yeah Bob this one is a Qosmio F45 and the US model she bought on Ebay - yes flipping Ebay for $1400 from somewhere in California.

Now the really strange thing is I checked the HDD this morning while I was trying to fit an old HP optical (didn't work) to the machine and it was SATA.
I have Googled for specs but finding Toshiba info is a nightmare quite frankly and the only replacements I could find were in the US and start at $120 - up.

Anyway I have left it as is and told her that as the cost of new parts were already $325 - I don't charge anything for doing it she would be better off getting together another $350 for which she can get an HP G6 with an i5 dual core four thread Ivy Bridge processor and 4GB RAM plus a 500GB HDD running Windows 7 Home Premium.

To be brutally honest I have had two Toshiba laptops myself and after the problems I have had with them you couldn't give me one. I don't know what happened to the quality of that brand but for a while now it seems to have gone down the tubes!

But if anyone is watching this thread - if you have a Toshiba and cannot adjust the brightness of the screen - if you fit an SSD you need to change the BIOS boot settings to normal and not fast because for some reason the Toshiba machine will not keep your settings through Power Options. It is really odd because setting through Power Options too you need to set in reverse - dim not bright - huh a bit like Toshiba designers I reckon.
See my thread if you are interested Problem with power settings

John

Well, damn.

A little sniffing indicates that the Qosmio F45 uses a SATA hard drive and a PATA (IDE) optical drive. You weren't hallucinating, after all. One review from 2007 described one model as having an HD DVD optical drive. (That format was championed by Toshiba, but it's still a little sad.)

You weren't hallucinating, after all. LOL!!

It would be laughable if it were not rue and so flipping irritating - what o earth were they thinking of?

Anyway they have lost her business now as well as mine and I tell anyone I work with if they ask not to buy Toshiba. It's called shooting one's self in one's foot (or feet)