Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

erise · Jul 21, 2003, 12:27 PM

My Iomega Zip CD 650 drive just doesn't work very well. I'm on a Sawtooth G4 with a built in DVD-ROM drive. I'm wondering if it would be possible to add a CD-RW drive to the slot normally reserved for a zip drive. I remember one of my teachers at school stuck a hard drive in that slot but would a CD-RW drive work as well? Thanks.

Lateralus · Jul 21, 2003, 12:35 PM

Not without modification to the bay. The bay itself is meant for 3.5" drivers such as Hard Drives/Zips, optical drives are 5.25".

chabig · Jul 21, 2003, 12:55 PM

Your best bet is an inexpensive firewire CD-RW drive--about $100.

erise · Jul 21, 2003, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by chabig:
Your best bet is an inexpensive firewire CD-RW drive--about $100.

Yeah, I realize that would be the best solution but it's my dad's G4 and there is no way he'd spend much for a cd burner again since he spent $200 for the Iomega drive two and a half years ago.

chabig · Jul 21, 2003, 02:18 PM

it's my dad's G4 and there is no way he'd spend much for a cd burner again

Another solution would be to replace the DVD-ROM drive with a combo drive. I don't know how much they cost, though. But you may be able to sell the DVD-ROM on eBay. Even $10-$20 would offset some of the cost of a combo.

Chris

erise · Jul 21, 2003, 04:56 PM

I looked at dealnews and combo drives are around $70 and my dad said that's too expensive so I guess the only solution will be to try to get the Iomega drive working. I'll get some different cd-r's other than PNY brand and try that.

erise · Jul 21, 2003, 07:37 PM

It looks like it may be the discs. My dad borrowed a firewire Que CD-RW burner, and first attempt with that failed to. I wonder if my PNY discs are no good... I guess it could be the system install but I've been trying on two different Macs.

chabig · Jul 21, 2003, 08:54 PM

Next step--take the Iomega drive, the Que drive, and your blank CDs to the friend who loaned you the Que drive and see if he can burn with your stuff.

Chris

erise · Jul 21, 2003, 09:53 PM

Well, the error message after trying a burn with the Que drive was from the Finder, not related to the burning itself. The discs I've tried burning with the Que all work fine. So now I'm back to thinking the Iomega drive is faulty.

chabig · Jul 21, 2003, 10:26 PM

Does it play, but can't burn? Is that it?

erise · Jul 22, 2003, 10:44 AM

Originally posted by chabig:
Does it play, but can't burn? Is that it?

Yeah. We're just going to get a CD-RW drive from a relative to replace the DVD-ROM drive with, since the DVD-ROM drive isn't used hardly at all anyway.

chabig · Jul 22, 2003, 11:48 AM

If it plays, but won't burn, I was going to suggest that it may be a software problem. I think the Iomega drive requires its own drivers. But if you're just going to swap it, then your problem is solved.

Chris

erise · Jul 22, 2003, 01:30 PM

Iomega has no software for its drives in OS X, AFAIK.