I inadvertantly busted the outer pane of the fixed side of my sliding glass door (an errant rock from a landscaping edger was the culprit), but was fortunate enough that my builder's supplier covered the damage under warranty and gave me a free panel as a replacement. This occurred 2.5+ years after my build so it's up to me to do the actual fix and replacing of the panel.

The problem is, I can't quite figure out how to go about it. I'm fairly handy around the house (finished my basement myself - with a lot of help from how-to manuals and, of course, the internet), so I know it's something I can tackle. But, I want to make sure I have a gameplan before I go about removing the old panel. Obviously, I want to replace it as soon as possible (within the same day, ideally), so I don't have a gaping hole in my basement wall...so I need to know what I'm doing before I remove the old panel.

Searching on the web didn't yield any results other than how to replace an entire sliding glass door assembly.

Complicating matters is that the replacement pane I was given is the double-side pane only, not the vinyl frame around it. So, I'll need to salvage the vinyl frame from the broken pane that I'm replacing.

I know I'll need to remove the sliding panel of the door first (apparently, by lifting it out of its tracks and then removing), but I can't see how I'd remove the fixed side beyond that. There are no evident screws or brackets keeping it in place (that I can tell by looking anyway) like I read that there should be.

Has anyone ever done this type of install/replacement? I was a little surprised that my web search turned up so little. Would appreciate any advice and/or guidance. Thanks!