Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

docholiday · Feb 13, 2003, 06:10 PM

huh? where is the message??

anyways, yea that's something I would like to know too. I have a Pioneer DVD Rom drive that's been rotting in my P3 1Ghz (it has a separate CD burner too) and I would like to install it on my mac.

1) Do I need any special drivers or will Apple's DVD player be able to use it rite away?
2) Since it's a PC DVD drive, will it do any damage to my mac if it's not compatible?
3) I prolly need to get a new IDE cable to be able to hook all three (HDD, CDRW, DVD) up, do master/slave settings work just like on the PC?

thanx in advance, and sorry to the original poster but I didn't want to create another topic with the same problem at hand.

doc holiday

bbt · Feb 13, 2003, 06:17 PM

i saw the message posted but for some reason its not there now

docholiday · Feb 13, 2003, 06:19 PM

Originally posted by bbt:
i saw the message posted but for some reason its not there now

hmm, weird.. seems like the forums are having troubles again. must be really hard keeping them running.

but hey why don't ya repost your message?

madsenj37 · Feb 13, 2003, 07:31 PM

Go here www.xlr8yourmac.com and then go to drive compatability database and see if you have a drive that will work.

madsenj37 · Feb 13, 2003, 07:36 PM

you can also go here http://www.apple.com/itunes/compatibility/ and see if you have a supported mechanism by apple.

clarkgoble · Feb 14, 2003, 12:49 AM

I had a spare one and I put it in my dual 867 along with two spare hard drives I had on a PC. (One a 120gig and the other a 15gig) They all work great.

An eject menu actually appears in the upper right allowing you to select which drive to eject. That is actually very handy as I use a Microsoft keyboard which has no eject button. I used to get frustrated about ejecting disks prior to adding a second DVD drive.

docholiday · Feb 14, 2003, 02:20 AM

Originally posted by clarkgoble:
I had a spare one and I put it in my dual 867 along with two spare hard drives I had on a PC. (One a 120gig and the other a 15gig) They all work great.

An eject menu actually appears in the upper right allowing you to select which drive to eject. That is actually very handy as I use a Microsoft keyboard which has no eject button. I used to get frustrated about ejecting disks prior to adding a second DVD drive.

Did ya configure it as a master or a slave? And I did ya test it with Apple DVD Player or did ya get a third party DVD software?

I am gonna put the DVD drive into my mac this weekend and want to make sure that I have made all the checking/inquiring beforehand. I read the online manual already and the only thing I wasn't too clear about is whether you keep your original drive as master or make it slave and thus, make your new drive a master.

ginoledesma · Feb 15, 2003, 08:18 AM

Most DVD drives will work on the Mac, but check with XLR8YourMac to see if you can actually boot from the drive. It may not matter to you, but some people would rather that their DVD drives be able to boot CDs.

The CD and DVD drives on most PowerMacs are connected to the secondary ATA bus. Just make sure that no two devices are set to the same mode (that is, one of them ought to be master, and the other ought to be slave). You can run Apple System Profiler to find out how your drives are currently set so you don't have to open up your case and remove the drive just to find out its current setting.

As for whether your ["new"] drive should be set to master or slave, it really doesn't matter so long as it isn't the same as the drive's that's already installed.]

Also, note that the older PowerMacs (pre-Mirror Drive Doors?) can accomodate only 1 full-sized (i.e. 5.25") drive, unless you do a custom hack with the case.

BurpetheadX · Feb 17, 2003, 04:07 PM

If it's not compatiable, you can always get a Apple DVD ROM off ebay for dirt cheap, they go for like 10-20 bucks.

bbt · Feb 24, 2003, 02:07 PM

thanks but what if i wanted to add an internal zip in addition to the second rom drive?

so i would have 2 optical drive, 1 internal zip and up to 3 hard drives (the forth connector for the zip instead of a 4th hard drive)

where can i get an internal bracket to support the zip drive?

sek929 · Feb 24, 2003, 02:39 PM

Originally posted by bbt:
where can i get an internal bracket to support the zip drive?

If your skilled with hacking cases you can have mine

bradoesch · Feb 24, 2003, 03:29 PM

Originally posted by docholiday:
anyways, yea that's something I would like to know too. I have a Pioneer DVD Rom drive that's been rotting in my P3 1Ghz (it has a separate CD burner too) and I would like to install it on my mac.
?

2) Since it's a PC DVD drive, will it do any damage to my mac if it's not compatible?

No need to worry about damage. There really is no such thing as a "PC" or "Mac" drive, it's just that not all drives are supported on the Mac.

BTW, is this a DVD-ROM drive or a DVD-R/W drive? You mentioned that your PC already has a CD burner, and since DVD-ROM drives can't write to CDs, it makes me think you've got a DVD-R/W drive.

bbt · Feb 25, 2003, 05:14 PM

"If your skilled with hacking cases you can have mine"

thanks

i'll take you up on you offer

how can i contact you?