Optical drive compatibility(no one seems to know)

New member,please have patience for me.
I have a HP Pavilion zt1145,yes it is old,but I have no other options at the moment.
The cd-rw/dvd rom is now dysfunctional,normally just temperamental,but now it won't read bootable disk for me to reformat.
I need to get a new one,used preferably,since I need to get one,I want to upgrade to a DVD burner as well.
The ideal thing would be an internal cd/dvd rw,or cd/dvd r.
Here is the problem,I want to buy it on EBAY,but there is no part numbers etc.
Only the models they came out of.
I need to know if what I want to do ius possible as well as what Drives ARE compatible,at least what series.
I have been chatting with HP Support,and they are confused on this one,they are telling me it is impossible,but can not tell me why.
Any help would be deeply appreciated.
I am in the Amazons at the moment and do not have any options.

Thanks.

 

It is hard to tell. Only HP should know. If they are not telling, then it is possibly that the model is not in production anymore and that they don't maintain compatibility list. It could also be that there is simply no other drive compatible with the laptop, i.e. caddy, cover plate etc. So you're stuck with it.

On the other hand, if you can live without the cover plate, maybe you can just get a bare drive and fit it into the laptop. However this is very risky since if you get a regular drive and it is going to be a hassle to return it, if it is possible at all.

If you can, get an external USB drive. That's what I would recommend, although I'm not sure whether you can boot to an external drive to reformat your machine. That is another story.

Maybe someone else knows better.

 

it shouldnt be a problem upgrading.
Can you please take a picture of your current optical drive bay.
All you need is one which is the same dimensions and uses the same interface.
Hp tech support is crap, nbr is where all the real tech support is

The only problem you will have is that your cpu cant keep up with dvd burning, so you may only be able to burn cd's. Anyways, all you need is a drive which can be recognized by your system.

Tell us what the model of your drive is and give us a picture of the interface side of the optical drive and we can help you out.

Refer here on how to take it out (pg 68-71)
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/lpi06056.pdf

K-TRON

 

You should be able to see the model number of the optical drive in Device Manager. For many years now almost all notebook optical drives have used a standard physical format and are interchangeable.

See this thread for more guidance on changing the optical drive. You can change the fascia with a little care. The only problem that sometimes arises is if the optical drive shares the same IDE channel with the hard disk, in which case the ODD has to be set to be the slave.

John