Remembered that i have an DVD-RW drive saved up from my friend's HP laptop repair project - so i tried that. It fit nicely, and even the faceplate was reasonably easy to make fit. Had to use some doublesided tape (!) to get it stay in place. So the drive seems to work now, but the strange noise must be coming from the HD. So once again need to find an 2.5" ATA drive.. oh well.