SATA power

do SATA dvd rom drives require a power supply, or is the power over SATA like HDD?

Erm, all SATA hard drives require a separate power connection... :|

So yes, it needs a SATA power connector (or molex to SATA adapter) from the PSU.

ok, providing it needs this, could i run an internal dvd rom drive outside my laptop, hanging off an SATA express card? would this require 2 SATA connections which the card has?

No - you would require one SATA data connector and a power supply. My guess is that the card supplies two data connectors for connecting to two drives. SATA is not like USB - power and data are not integrated into the interface specification (apart from anything else the data specifications for SATA are more rigorous - it is a higher speed bus)

there is a shortage of external blu ray writer drives now. i might succumb and buy one, or perhaps rig a desk power supply to power an internal drive outside. Do vendors sell PSUs which are safe and electrically isolated for outside use, and take IDE and molex connectors? I would rarther buy a lacie blu ray when it arrives. However Lacie have a history of PSU failures, look at John Honeyball in pcpro.

just had an idea, i am going to look into rigging the drive up to a PC PSU (outside), and the data connection plugged into the laptop. would this solution work? i see no reason why not, and then i would not be plagued with any power supply problems with an LG or Lacie external writer for instance.

You can get small smpsus that would provide suitable power - but you will have to shop around.

I've just had a qick look for external cases - without finding any - however you could perhaps get an Akasa external SATA hdd drive case and use the power supply and back plane electronics with an internal DVD blu-ray device just 'hanging loose' (not literally, but unhoused). It would be safe electrically, but not particularly elegant - or portable.