Perhaps I only need to find the proper cable. The Pavilion xt973 once had a CD drive that has been removed. There is a sata power connector on a wire bundle that will fit the power jack on the CD drive. The thing that has me befuddled is the data out of the CD drive. I can't seem to find a cable to fit this and there are no clearly marked inputs on the motherboard for the cable if I had one. There are two open connectors on the MB at the REAR edge just above the pci slots. They are not marked with anything that makes sense to me. I BELIEVE they are four pins. Of course I don't have any literature pertaining to this board. Incidentally there is no audio out jack on the drive.

I will be very grateful for any light on this situation.
Ivan CopasBy any chance can you attach a clear picture of the connector on the Optiarc drive? And maybe also a pic of the ports on the mobo?Thanks so much for your response.
I plan to drive over (I live in the country) to a former co worker's shop and see if he can help me.
I like your ideas about getting pictures of the connectors. It may tax my abilities and my little camera.
I may persue this later if nothing else turns up.
Thanks again,
IvanI understand my situation a little better now.
I am being OVERCOME by advances in drive technology.
It seems the Sony Optiarc drive uses different connectors and requires a later model motherboard. Different from the HP computer I want to put it in.
The solution will be to obtain an older design drive that will mate painlessly with the HP.
I don't know about wheather the HP controller WOULD work with the Sony drive.
Why put a Corvette transmission in a Model T?

Thanks for being patient and please excuse my slowness.

Ivan CopasThere are only 2 types of optical/hard drive connections...
SATA = new style
IDE = older style

They are NOT brand specific.

So if the machine is a bit older you need an IDE optical drive.

(I left out SCSI as it's not used very much these days )Just a thought (and this may be more trouble/cost than it's worth), if your HP mobo has only IDE, but your Optiarc is SATA, you could get a SATA add-on card (probably using PCI given the age of your mobo) and you can then SUPPORT the newer interfaces inside your computer. Just a thought. Don't know the exact layout of your mobo or Optiarc drive.

And Ivan, you don't need to apologize. I for one am happiest when I'm chatting with folks who are interested in taking initiative on their own and learning about the computers and technology that many of us love.

Good luck!