2nd Optical Drive Replacement

[dchrist21]

So I've just ordered my 2nd optical drive for my late-09 21.5" iMac. The drive is a "standard" Super Drive, model GA11N on the sticker. I found a seller on eBay that sells what appear to be OEM replacements for this part.

My question is if I can get new tape for all of the sensors/wires that get removed and replaced during this process. I was able to get all of them to re-stick the last time I replaced the drive, but I don't want to push my luck. Anyone have a source for this type of thing? I've looked briefly at OWC and a few other sites with no luck.

Thanks,

-Dylan

 

[Bear]

So I've just ordered my 2nd optical drive for my late-09 21.5" iMac. The drive is a "standard" Super Drive, model GA11N on the sticker. I found a seller on eBay that sells what appear to be OEM replacements for this part.
...

Have you thought about buying a 3rd party external optical drive? Would be easier to deal with if it breaks and you can use it on anotehr system if you need to.

 

[Fishrrman]

In complete agreement with Bear's post above.

Simple, quick, easy, cheap solution:
Buy an external DVD/CD drive. They can be had for as little as $25 or so. Just plug it in and use it.
And you don't have to open up the iMac to replace it!

 

[dchrist21]

Thanks for the input. I did actually look for an external drive from a local retailer, but nobody had anything in-stock for less than $80 (Blu-ray, I think). So rather than order a $35 external, I opted for the internal drive for an extra $20. For me, it's worth the extra cash to not have an external drive eating up desk space. In the future, I may change my mind.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. It'll make my 3rd time replacing this drive a whole lot simpler.

 

[SaSaSushi]

Something else to consider on the Late 2009 iMac if you are dealing with a bum optical drive is that you cannot install BootCamp Windows from an external DVD drive. You can't create a USB installer thumb drive either. Apple requires it to be installed from the Superdrive of all Macs that shipped with them, functional or not.

If you're not interested in installing Windows in BootCamp it is a non-issue but it was a huge problem for me on my former machine and part of the reason I ended up getting a replacement drive off of eBay and replacing it myself.

As the OP already knows, the process turns out to be not that difficult at all.

I think you can probably also find replacement temperature sensors on eBay as well, but if you removed it carefully with a spudger the first time I think it would be good for a few more applications at least.