Q: Transplant from Dual USB to Clamshell

So I finally, after years of wanting to at least see one in the flesh, scored myself a Clamshell iBook. I would have loved it to have been a Graphite Firewire SE, but I wound up with an original Blueberry, complete with tiny 3.2GB disk but 288MB RAM and in remarkably good condition with one of those fancy cases that were made specifically for the iBook line. And all for £15 plus £5 shipping from eBay, so I won't complain.

What is frustrating is my hastiness to get it running OS 9 (it came with Panther, but no discs). I transferred, via USB stick, an unblessed OS 9 system folder and having tried to boot using it, promptly lost the ability to boot anything.The iBook can't find the panther installation, nor can it boot with the unblessed OS 9 folder. So while I await the chance to pick up Panther discs from my parents' house at Christmas, I tried to burn a bootable OS 9 disc. With success.

BUT: Having managed to boot the machine from the OS 9 disc I'm now wondering whether the CD-ROM drive is on its last legs as it boots alright but once the desktop begins to load the computer becomes dog slow and locks up, with constant clicking from the CD and occasional bursts of 'normal' operation. I know booting from CD is slow, but I also know it shouldn't be as slow as it is currently behaving. I once got as far as being able to double click the OS 9 installer and once got an error (type -92 I think). The other times I've tried it has simply carried on at a dog-slow pace and led me to believe it just won't make it so I've given up by cutting the power as trying to shut down the proper way would take forever.

Either my burned OS 9 disc (by the way, dragging the system fodler off the CD onto the HD doesn't work as it boots but then immediately states the system folder can only be used on the original medium - ie the CD it came from) is dodgy or tyhe drive is. I'm going to manage to get Panther discs later this month, but I'm not hopeful.

Also at my parents is a rather beat-up First Gen Dual USB iBook that still functions, if barely (it had the logic board issue fixed, but after a 6 month trip round India with my sister the screen now only functions if the lid is open at a less-than-45-degree angle). It came with a combo drive which I know to be working - at least I think it still works!

Now obviously I can replace the clamshell's drive with most any standard part, but I also know there are only certain drives to which the original bezel will attach properly (that is, without glue). Does anybody know if the drives apple used in the different iBook G3 models are similar? Do they use the same interface? (Harder to find out using google than I'd expected). I'm not looking to use the Clammy to watch DVDs though having the ability to read them would be handy - the drive swap is merely because I don't want to spend any more money on it as it's a side project and just want to ensure its ability to read CDs.

Seriously, I have never wished for firewire and Target Disk Mode so strongly.