Is my CD-ROM unit IDE or EIDE??? Help please...

[Prevost]

I want to mount a DVD/CD RW unit in replacement of my CD Rom unit. How do I know if I need to buy an IDE or an EIDE unit? Is there a way to know this without opening the computer's case?

I own a Gateway micro tower running Windows 98, it is 3 years old...

[KimVette]

I want to mount a DVD/CD RW unit in replacement of my CD Rom unit. How do I know if I need to buy an IDE or an EIDE unit? Is there a way to know this without opening the computer's case?

I own a Gateway micro tower running Windows 98, it is 3 years old...

It's going to be EIDE.

IDE was hard drives ONLY and EIDE was introduced not only to extend capacities beyond 528MB, but also to enable other mass-storage devices such as WORM (now called CD-R) and other types of devices. Your CD drives are going to be EIDE. As far as whether it's simply EIDE, DMA33, DMA66, etc. you may have some digging to find out, but it won't matter since higher devices will (generally, barring firmware bugs) automatically use the slower protocols when required.

[Prevost]

OK, thank you, let me now go to the store and find out if there are some available and how deeply specificated they need to be...