Ide or sata how to tell

[bhasanand73]

i have compaq hp pc presario and my dvd tray is not ejecting.engineer says lens gone and dvd writer to replaced.how do i find whether mine ide or sata? so that i can buy the appropriate writer

 

[hubbardt]

Sata is a small cable:
http://www.cooldrives.com/sata-extension-cable.html

IDE cable is a wide, flat ribon cable
http://www.wpclipart.com/computer/hardware/cables/ide_cable.png.html

Your PC is most likely to use SATA, unless it 5 yrs or older
Just open it up and see what cable is connected to the DVD