Advancement in black dvd drive diagnosis: It only opens when a disc is inserted.

#DVDDrive #IDEDVDDrive #DVD

Let this be a warning: SAVE THE DATA ON THOSE OLD BURNED DISCS. They won't last forever. Now is the time!

I have a box of CDs with backups of my digital past from 1997 up to 2007. These are things ranging from when I was at university to my first couple of paying jobs.

Today, I spent the whole afternoon backing up (the backups) onto my NAS. I have an old laptop with a DVD drive and an external USB drive for the PC. Unfortunately, neither could read most of the discs anymore 😢.

At last, an old NEC ND-3520AW I found in a box of old PC stuff came to the rescue. It also struggled with a couple of discs but eventually managed to read all the discs without errors.

I am happy that the data is safe now. Not that I really need any of it anymore, but it has some sentimental value.

#backup #datarecovery
#dvddrive #pc

Laser Engraver Uses All of the DVD Drive https://hackaday.com/2023/08/10/laser-engraver-uses-all-of-the-dvd-drive/ #opticaldrive #steppermotor #LaserHacks #carriage #dvddrive #engraver #arduino #gcode #laser #cnc

As I've gotten back into #pcgaming , I've been on a kick of getting some of my old games running on my current #Windows10 laptop. I have quite a few classics on #CDROMs from the #90s - #00s.

Since my #GPDWinMax #gaminglaptop has no #CDdrive or #DVDdrive , I've been using my non-gaming laptop to burn the disks to #ISO files to then mount as a drive to run the installer and game.

Of course, most of these go back to ~ #WindowsXP compatibility, so they won't play nice with Windows 10 out of the box (BTW, compatibility mode *never* works for me- if anyone has ever had luck with it running older software on Windows 10 that way, do let me know!). I either had to use #voodoo library files to fix issues like the video only being half displayed (or sideways!) or running the application file in #DxWnd.

Granted, some of these games are available on modern options like #GoG or #Steam , but hey, I paid for the games already. Why pay again if I can get my own copies to work? 🤣

Mini Laser Engraver Could Carve Out a Place on Your Desk

Got a couple of old DVD-RW drives lying around, just collecting dust? Of course you do. If not, you likely know where to find a pair so you can build this totally adorable and fully dangerous laser engraver for your desk. Check out the complete build video after the break.

[Smart Tronix] doesn't just tell you to salvage the stepper motors out of the drives -- they show you how it's done and even take the time to explain in writing what stepper motors are and why you would want to use them in this project, which is a remix of [maggie_shah]'s design over on Thingiverse. As you might expect, the two steppers are wired up to an Arduino Uno through a CNC shield with a pair of A4988 motor drivers. These form the two axes of movement -- the 250mW laser is attached to x, and the platform moves back and forth on the y axis. We'd love to have one of these to mess around with. Nothing that fits on that platform would be safe! Just don't forget the proper laser blocking safety glasses!

Need something much bigger that won't take up a lot of space? Roll up your sleeves and build a SCARA arm to hold your laser.

#arduinohacks #howto #laserhacks #arduinouno #dvddrive #laser #laserengraver