My slim DvD RW pooped out on me a while ago and I had been dragging my feet to buy a new one (lots of $$’s). But, I finally broke down and bought a nice slim to take the place of my malfunctioning unit. Sadly, the new slim DvD RW was just a centimeter or two too short and the slim drive wasn’t wanting to close. Both drives seemed like they were the same size, but the face plates were the only things that were different thicknesses. The new slim drive face plate was very thin. SO! I switched the face plates. And now everything is happy. + I’m happy. Here’s how I did it.

First straighten a paper clip. This is going to be inserted into the manual eject slot (little hole in the front).

Once you’ve ejected the drive you gently pull out the drive. This may be different depending on your laptop. I have a Dell XPS M1210 and I simply pulled the drive out. No unscrewing needed. I think this is the way most laptops are.

Once you’ve gotten to this point to switch the face plates you gently give the faceplate a series of tugs. BECAREFUL! You can easily break off the faceplate tabs (This will render your slim DvD RW nearly useless or at least super annoying)

Once you’ve pulled off the faceplate it should look like this. Now snap on your new faceplate and enjoy