Help! Crashed into the open CD drive of my computer and broke it! WHat do I do now??

[IlanaK]

I know it was incredibly stupid! I opened it to change a cd and then managed to crash my leg straight into it (severly cuting my leg). It now seems broken - it won't open or close fully. What do I do?

I do not have a car (live in central london) so can't take it anywhere. Who can I call out to fix it? It is a Dell but I am not under any service contract with them. Should I call them? I am worried they will charge me a fortune to fix it.

Any ideas????

Is there anyone in the yellow pages who would pick it up from you? See if you can get them to look at it for free first before agreeing to any repairs.

I am worried about just picking someone out of the yellow pages. They could rip me off. Do PC WOrld make house calls?? (Just kidding)

It's very easy to fix yourself. You just buy a new drive. Then you open your computer and remove the old one (this means taking out a couple of screws and disconnecting a cable. Then you do the reverse with the new one.

You can aslo install a USB drive if you really don't want to open your PC.

So, I am guessing by that there is no way to fix this one? How do I know what drive to buy? Are all cd drives the same? By this, I don't mean the same quality or capability, but the same size to fit any pc?

Is it really that easy? I can go to a PC World tomorow if it really is.

Do you use it that often?

If not, you could just buy a memory stick for your computer or flash drive or whatever it's called, for which you use the USB points, and use that to back up your stuff.

We use it daily. My oldest son has a tonne of computer software on CD (all the educational stuff like zoombinis). I use it to pu stuff on itunes. That was what I was doing when this happened. Putting the latest HArry Potter cds onto the computer to download onto my ipod and I only got halfway through before I broke it!

It really is dead easy, Ilana. You just buy a new one and remove the old one. You probably won't be able to buy a CD drive, so will replace it with a DVD drive - it will cost £25-30. There are full instructions supplied with the new drive. The PC world nerds will be able to reassure you.

Ok, thanks. Off to Pc World tomorow. Had a quick look on line and am a bit confused that there seem to be two kinds - 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch. What is this a measure of?

Where were you looking on the PC world website.

The page I see (Optical drives - desktop) doesn't specify size - they are all the same

You get the same size that you remove from your PC - basically, CD-sized.

Just wanted to say a quick thank you. I went to PC World today, bought the only drive they had and even though it had no instructions, it really was very simple to fit. And oh my god the inside of my computer was so full of dust that I am suprised it worked at all! It is definately working better after a good hoovering out!

Excellent stuff!

I hope you have a sense of achievement too. It wasn't that bad, was it?