LiteOn 5005 standalone DVD Recorder drive swap, easy peasy.

My 5005 recently expired in that the drawer would no longer open. £150
down the pan and I only bought it in 2004. I decided to take a look
inside and discovered the internals were basically a PC ribbon cable
and PC drive power supply, exactly the same as you would use to plug a
new DVD drive into your PC. I had an old knackered Pioneer drive
around and plugged that in to the 5005 chassis and it worked, to a
fashion.

Had a search online and many had tried to swap out the drives etc,
using the next model up, however four years later and the 5005 has
well and truly been superceded. I took a chance and bought a brand new
(current Aug 2007)
LiteON LH-20A1P-487C 20x DVDRW Super all write Kit PC drive @ only
£23 and plugged it in, and it all works perfectly (copy to DVD,
formatting menu etc)

Well chuffed. Then I thought I'd have to secure the drive to the
outside of the 5005 case as it's quite big. However I took the drawer
door off and placed it inside the old 5005 chassis and it lines up
perfectly. There is an stainless steel frame on the old drive which I
used to secure the new drive slightly. A piece of foam on the left to
stop the drive sliding, and some BlueTak on top so that when I put the
lid back in the drive couldn't move.

All bolted back together and working perfectly, apart from the
original 5005 drawer cover, which I seem to have mislaid somewhere!

So don't chuck it out, try and recycle first.


Hope this helps some of you.

PS: I wonder if this is the same for the HDD models with say an 80gb,
could you just swapout to a bigger drive?

"Les" <LESnospam@%%mon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cc23d3lclc7ne2gigc0svj6ntppgq4fn6f@4ax.com...
>>
> PS: I wonder if this is the same for the HDD models with say an 80gb,
> could you just swapout to a bigger drive?

Possibly. Might require Linux to format it. I'd check to try and see about
what format it might need and if the unit expects to see anything on the
drive before buying one. Might be possible to put a bigger drive in too.
With the way drive size is expanding it may be hard to find a new 80GB IDE
drive in a couple of years. Never tried to do a format with Knopix but
wouldn't be surprised it could do it. It's free.

Good job on the optical drive.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:53:31 -0400, "Captain Midnight"
<Notany@twip.invalid> wrote:

>
>"Les" <LESnospam@%%mon.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:cc23d3lclc7ne2gigc0svj6ntppgq4fn6f@4ax.com.. .
>>>
>> PS: I wonder if this is the same for the HDD models with say an 80gb,
>> could you just swapout to a bigger drive?
>
>Possibly. Might require Linux to format it. I'd check to try and see about
>what format it might need and if the unit expects to see anything on the
>drive before buying one. Might be possible to put a bigger drive in too.
>With the way drive size is expanding it may be hard to find a new 80GB IDE
>drive in a couple of years. Never tried to do a format with Knopix but
>wouldn't be surprised it could do it. It's free.

I think the HDD recorder will have to wait now I've fixed the LiteOn.
I now have a new next to useless Panasonic EZ27 which is very fussy
about what it copies, but has a great Freeview recording system that
is much easier than VideoPlus, and the LiteOn is rapidly copying my
entire VHS collection as we speak. AS an aside on the old LiteOn drive
my Firewire input would lock up after an hour or two and the DVD
copying was coasted (Im running out of a JVC DVS1 which had firewire
output for VHS/MiniDV)! So far with this new drive via firewire I have
had no lockouts, not sure why but very handy :-)

>Good job on the optical drive.

Cheers. I'm so chuffed as I hate throwing things out LOL

"Les" <LESnospam@%%mon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cc23d3lclc7ne2gigc0svj6ntppgq4fn6f@4ax.com...
> My 5005 recently expired in that the drawer would no longer open. £150
> down the pan and I only bought it in 2004. I decided to take a look
> inside and discovered the internals were basically a PC ribbon cable
> and PC drive power supply, exactly the same as you would use to plug a
> new DVD drive into your PC. I had an old knackered Pioneer drive
> around and plugged that in to the 5005 chassis and it worked, to a
> fashion.
>
> Had a search online and many had tried to swap out the drives etc,
> using the next model up, however four years later and the 5005 has
> well and truly been superceded. I took a chance and bought a brand new
> (current Aug 2007)
> LiteON LH-20A1P-487C 20x DVDRW Super all write Kit PC drive @ only
> £23 and plugged it in, and it all works perfectly (copy to DVD,
> formatting menu etc)
>
> Well chuffed. Then I thought I'd have to secure the drive to the
> outside of the 5005 case as it's quite big. However I took the drawer
> door off and placed it inside the old 5005 chassis and it lines up
> perfectly. There is an stainless steel frame on the old drive which I
> used to secure the new drive slightly. A piece of foam on the left to
> stop the drive sliding, and some BlueTak on top so that when I put the
> lid back in the drive couldn't move.
>
> All bolted back together and working perfectly, apart from the
> original 5005 drawer cover, which I seem to have mislaid somewhere!
>
> So don't chuck it out, try and recycle first.
>
>
> Hope this helps some of you.
>
> PS: I wonder if this is the same for the HDD models with say an 80gb,
> could you just swapout to a bigger drive?

Don't know if a bigger Hdd swap will work on the Liteon but I know it won't
on any Panny.

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:22:20 +0100, Les <LESnospam@%%mon.co.uk> wrote:

>On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:53:31 -0400, "Captain Midnight"
><Notany@twip.invalid> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Les" <LESnospam@%%mon.co.uk> wrote in message
>>news:cc23d3lclc7ne2gigc0svj6ntppgq4fn6f@4ax.com. ..
>>>>
>>> PS: I wonder if this is the same for the HDD models with say an 80gb,
>>> could you just swapout to a bigger drive?
>>
>>Possibly. Might require Linux to format it. I'd check to try and see about
>>what format it might need and if the unit expects to see anything on the
>>drive before buying one. Might be possible to put a bigger drive in too.
>>With the way drive size is expanding it may be hard to find a new 80GB IDE
>>drive in a couple of years. Never tried to do a format with Knopix but
>>wouldn't be surprised it could do it. It's free.
>
>I think the HDD recorder will have to wait now I've fixed the LiteOn.
>I now have a new next to useless Panasonic EZ27 which is very fussy
>about what it copies, but has a great Freeview recording system that
>is much easier than VideoPlus, and the LiteOn is rapidly copying my
>entire VHS collection as we speak. AS an aside on the old LiteOn drive
>my Firewire input would lock up after an hour or two and the DVD
>copying was coasted (Im running out of a JVC DVS1 which had firewire
>output for VHS/MiniDV)! So far with this new drive via firewire I have
>had no lockouts, not sure why but very handy :-)

Cancel that. Locks outs still occurring but I think it might be the
JVC at fault, which locks the picture as if on pause, then the liteon
freaks out and goes into stop mode but never actually stops stopping,
requires a power off!


>>Good job on the optical drive.
>
>Cheers. I'm so chuffed as I hate throwing things out LOL
>
>