[Powaqqatsi]

I've got one of these older LaCie CD burners (external FireWire 400) with a 32x or so CD-RW drive in it. What I would like to do now is buy a DL DVD writer and put that inside that case. Would it be hard/easy/possible ? I don't see why it wouldn't work but maybe there is something I need to know about before I do this ?

[simonjames]

I am in the same boat except that I want to replace the CD RW with an ATA HD. I have tried all the pin combinations (slave, master and cable select) but none seem to have worked.

Has anyone ever had success with this?

[simonjames]

I forgot to add that the enclosure I am trying to re-use is a QPS firewire CD RW. The HD gets power and starts to spin but the disk never mounts on the powerbook.

[rjenkinson]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
I've got one of these older LaCie CD burners (external FireWire 400) with a 32x or so CD-RW drive in it. What I would like to do now is buy a DL DVD writer and put that inside that case. Would it be hard/easy/possible ? I don't see why it wouldn't work but maybe there is something I need to know about before I do this ?

it works. i've done just that.

-r.

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by rjenkinson:
it works. i've done just that.

-r.

Was it one of those models with the extremely loud fan ? If so, did you in any way silence it ?

[rjenkinson]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
Was it one of those models with the extremely loud fan ? If so, did you in any way silence it ?

the case i used originally shipped with an 8x CD-RW drive in it. i replaced that drive with a sony 4x DVD±RW drive about a year ago. i didn't do anything to fan since it's not what i would call extremely loud. it's not such a big issue since you only hear it when the drive is on anyway.

-r.

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by rjenkinson:
the case i used originally shipped with an 8x CD-RW drive in it. i replaced that drive with a sony 4x DVD±RW drive about a year ago. i didn't do anything to fan since it's not what i would call extremely loud. it's not such a big issue since you only hear it when the drive is on anyway.

-r.

I've got one of these, and they are extremely loud. Anyway good news, I'll try it once I have the money for a DL DVD writer.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
I've got one of these, and they are extremely loud. Anyway good news, I'll try it once I have the money for a DL DVD writer.

I wanted to do that a while ago. In the end I did not buy a dvd burner because I did not like the specs. But I contacted the lacie support with exactly your question and got a good answer. There was something to check with the firmware of the oxford bridge I think. I have exactly this 32X firewire 400 burner.

If you like, I have a look this evening through my private mailbox and post the reply. It was quite helpfull.

Update
########
Ok, I promised too much. I cannot find the mail.
But thinking about it I am nearly sure it had to do with the version of the Oxford bridge. The version 900 IDE to Firewire bridge would not work reliably. The Bridge chip version 911 does.

I remember that I checked my chip and found version 911. So I kept in mind that the dvd burner replacement for this lacie drive should work.

But please post your results. Maybe I will update sometime.

[ism]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
[B]I've got one of these, and they are extremely loud. Anyway good news, I'll try it once I have the money for a DL DVD writer.

Any feedback? I have one of the same enclosures (very loud) but with a DVD-RW drive (2x max) that is now pretty much redundant since I can't find any 2x media and I've had no response from Lacie with regards to updating firmware to use the 4x media. And I don't want to kill it completely by trying since I can still use it as a CD-RW.

I'm think of doing the same and plonking in a newer DVD-RW. Mind you the newer Lacie models are pretty now, about 1/4 of the price of mine when I got it a couple of years ago!

EDIT: I've just had a quick look and it seems almost as cheap to get a new dual layer Lacie drive (that comes with Toast 6) as it is to get a Pioneer DVR 108 drive and buy Toast 6 separately.

In Uk:

OPTION 1
========
LACIE D2 FW, DUAL LAYER, 8.5GB, 16X DVD+/-RW + TOAST 6 = £138.64
(price macwarehouse.co.uk)

OPTION 2
========
Pioneer DVR 108 - DVD±RW (dual layer) drive - internal = £57.56
(price uk.insight.com)

+

ROXIO TOAST V6 TITANIUM MAC = £57.56
(price macwarehouse.co.uk)

TOTAL = £115.12

[Goldfinger]

Originally posted by Dr.Michael:
I wanted to do that a while ago. In the end I did not buy a dvd burner because I did not like the specs. But I contacted the lacie support with exactly your question and got a good answer. There was something to check with the firmware of the oxford bridge I think. I have exactly this 32X firewire 400 burner.

If you like, I have a look this evening through my private mailbox and post the reply. It was quite helpfull.

Update
########
Ok, I promised too much. I cannot find the mail.
But thinking about it I am nearly sure it had to do with the version of the Oxford bridge. The version 900 IDE to Firewire bridge would not work reliably. The Bridge chip version 911 does.

I remember that I checked my chip and found version 911. So I kept in mind that the dvd burner replacement for this lacie drive should work.

But please post your results. Maybe I will update sometime.

Could you tell me how to check the firmware version ?

[ism]

Originally posted by Goldfinger:
Could you tell me how to check the firmware version ?

You should be able to get it from the Apple System Profiler. Click on the apple, select "About this mac" Select More info.

[simonjames]

updating firmware is difficult - you need to find a site that allows you to directly download the file. Every site I went to asked a series of questions (hardware then OS) and then finished with "you don't need a driver/firmware update with OS 10.3" - bugger.

[angelmb]

Originally posted by simonjames:
I forgot to add that the enclosure I am trying to re-use is a QPS firewire CD RW. The HD gets power and starts to spin but the disk never mounts on the powerbook.

I had one of those QPS, a 8*4*32 cdrw but I was not able to use it with Mac OS X since latest versions.

I also had those extremely loud grey LaCie with the blue front panel, I could manage to put another cdrw drive on it, I could also manage to put a hard disk on it but, to be honest, it was so noise that I forget the whole thing, the perfomance/noise ratio was unaceptable, and got a d2 external hard disk plus a cdrw d2 burner. Happy me, happy LaCie

[simonjames]

Angelmb - I gave up on trying to use the QPS as an external HD and put its CDRW back inside it's case - as a CD writer it works a treat for me - always has

17" PB 1.5GHz 1Gb ram OS 10.3.6

not sure why you've had problems with yours when mine is fine

[angelmb]

Originally posted by simonjames:
Angelmb - I gave up on trying to use the QPS as an external HD and put its CDRW back inside it's case - as a CD writer it works a treat for me - always has

17" PB 1.5GHz 1Gb ram OS 10.3.6

not sure why you've had problems with yours when mine is fine

Weird, could be a different FireWire bridge thing