A friend of mine has a Hitachi 79 drive that has stopped reading discs. I want to try to replace it for him but since it cannot read discs I cannot use the 79_Unlock CD. Is there another way I can get the drive key off the drive? I know a hardware mod used to be required before the 79_Unlock CD was discovered but I'm having problems finding instructions on how to do this. If someone has a link/input it would be much appreciated. I also know there is a "probe" that can be used on LiteOn discs and was wondering if something like this would be an option with the Hitachi.

i recently changed a drive for a mate all i did to make it work was take out the board/card from the old drive and put it in the new 1 then it worked i find this way easyer then the other 1

Ahh... very interesting. I hadn't thought of that. I assume all the drive's info is stored on the board so swapping should work. Awesome!

Thanks

thanks again kiston360 but do you happen to have pics or a link to a how to on the disassembly of the drive? I'm fine with taking the cover off but I'm afraid to loose springs or break something when taking the bottom off to get to the board