I have a dead HP ENVY 17t with blu-ray drive. Trying to save the drive with an enclosure.

[PatrickKeating]

So, I've ordered an enclosure from Amazon.  The Vantec.  It hasn't arrived yet but I have already read their docs on the web.

I've pulled the blu-ray drive from the dead laptop and know what I have.  It's a UJ-262 manufactured by  Panasonic/Matshita.  I have the 9.5mm slim version.

My real question is: How do I remove the front "bezel" from the drive?  I found a video by a fast talker from England who zips through an unboxing in 2.5 minutes and covers the question of the bezel in about three seconds.  My problem is "do I have to remove two screws under the tray to get the bezel to release?"  Are both screws that I can see doing other important things that might suggest that one or the other maybe shouldn't ever be removed?  I am so close to avoiding having to trash the drive that I really don't want to screw it up now by removing the screw that holds the whole world together.

By the way, to forestall the inevitable question.  The display on the otherwise wonderful Envy 17-t is cracked.  And the display is now unwatchable.  For a while the tiny cracks didn't seem to be causing problems.  But after a couple of months things got much worse..  I assume that replacing the display would make fixing the computer otherwise uneconomical, so I haven't had a tech look at the machine.  I just surrendered and bought a new laptop that has no optical drive at all.

I vaguely remember on my last trip kicking the laptop's backpack to get it to fit under the seat in front of me.  That is presumably how I killed the much lamented laptop.

Be clear what I am asking, "How do I remove that front bezel on the UJ-262?"

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXhpu3JUkNU

[PatrickKeating]

I bought the Vantec enclosure for the 9.5mm blu-ray drive and with the package in hand I was able to inspect the included face plate.  I could plainly see how and where it was supposed to attach.  I took a flat screw driver and gently plied the face plate away from my drive.  It popped right off.  No screws needed to be removed or even loosened.  The drive went into the enclosure without problems.  I have just now tested it by playing a bit of the first disk of the multi-disk "Killroys" set. The enclosure has two USB plugs, one for USB 3.0 and one for USB 2.0.  I used only the USB 3.0 plug and had one brief freeze-frame episode.  I suspect that I was supposed to use both plugs so the drive can draw extra power from the USB 2.0 port.

The volume using the built-in speakers on my HP monitor was very weak and I couldn't figure any way to bump it up.  I already have the Windows 10 volume set to 85%.  Maybe using both plugs will get me past the freeze-frame problem and give me better volume.

Unfortunately, the requirement to use two USB plugs may mean the enclosure won't work on my new laptop.  It only has two type-A ports and they are on different sides of the case.  Since the screen is 17" they are too far apart for the enclosure's not very long cable between the two USB plugs.  I was trying to be "woke" and re-use as much as I could salvage from  the dead laptop.  But if the result is a sub-par experience I know I'll never really use the salvaged drive.

So close but no cigar.  At least not yet.  Thanks for the link to the Youtube video.  It puzzles me that searches on Youtube so often don't find the most useful videos.  This one was exactly what I needed to move forward confidently.  But by the time I saw it I had solved the problem for myself.  Thanks again.