What is the name for the plastic piece on the end of a 5.25" optical drive tray?

I have a PC set up with 3 optical drives (to rip compact discs). One of the drives was salvaged from a pre-built machine that had a cover to hide the optical drive. As a result of this, the plastic piece (I would call it a bezel) on the tray has been removed.

See this image (third drive down) for clarification.

Pic of drives.

I have tried to find a replacement using terms such as tray cover, tray bezel, etc. on eBay and Aliexpress and I have turned up nothing. I am surprised that no replacement is available, as the three drives I have all share the same fitting for this part – it seems to be generic.

Here are two more pictures of the part I am talking about – it's hard to describe!

Another pic.

And another pic.


Solution 1:

It is indeed a faceplate. Bezel is used too but that usually refers to the surrounding frame into which the faceplate sits flush when the tray is closed.

Your best bet is to take one from a scrap drive. Even transplant the faceplate and bezel both so you have a matching pair.

They aren’t as generic as they look. There are lots of variants with slightly different size/notches/retaining clips. Most can be made to fit using a sharp knife to shave of bits that get in the way. Polystyrene glue (same stuff as used for plastic model kits) can also be handy to glue a faceplate on a tray if the retaining clips don’t hold it in place well enough.

Solution 2:

That part is usually called a bezel or faceplate. I would recommend searching for “optical drive bezel” or “optical drive faceplate” and see what pops up. I would also recommend eBay searches for “optical drive bezel” and “optical drive faceplate” as well.

That said, I am not 100% sure how interchangeable these things are from drive to drive. But one quick idea is instead of searching for just the bezel/faceplate, see if there is a similar used—or even broken—drive you can find online or even in a thrift store going for cheap. Like an old CD-ROM drive that is going for cheap and just buy that and take the bezel/faceplate off of that. It might cost less than buying a specific bezel/faceplate for a specific device.