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MallyMal · 01:22 AM

I'm having a small problem with a Lacie Lightscribe DVD drive. The drive is an external drive that I removed from the external enclosure in tried to install into the second bay of my Mac Pro. OS X sees the drive fine when it is inside of its enclosure but can't see it when it's in the second internal bay. Any ideas of why this would be?

This is the specific model.http://www.lacie.com/us/support/supp...t.htm?id=10107

Thanks

Big Mac · Feb 17, 2009, 01:03 AM

Double check that it's installed securely, I suppose.

MallyMal · Feb 17, 2009, 01:19 AM

Yep, I checked if the everything was secure and all cables were.

Additionally details: The drive's activity light comes on when I first boot the system. Also, when the drive is installed in the second bay it causes my Mac Pro to boot slower than normal.

reader50 · Feb 17, 2009, 04:38 PM

Is the drive PATA or SATA? Speculation: it's PATA, and you didn't set the drive jumpers correctly for use in the internal bay.

Apple has liked Cable Select for awhile, which would require both optical drives to be CS. Alternatively, Master (for the cable end connector) and Slave. If both were set to Master, one or both of the internal optical drives would not work.

MallyMal · Feb 17, 2009, 06:24 PM

Yep, it is a PATA drive. And, yep, I did set the drive to cable select. I have Lite-On drive that works fine in the second bay as well. There's just something with this LaCie/Phillips drive that the Mac Pro doesn't like. Not sure what it is.

Big Mac · Feb 17, 2009, 06:41 PM

Mac Pros can accept ether PATA or SATA drives? Is that possible?

MallyMal · Feb 17, 2009, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Mac Pros can accept ether PATA or SATA drives? Is that possible?

The optical drives are PATA and the HDDs are SATA.

reader50 · Feb 17, 2009, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by MallyMal

Yep, it is a PATA drive. And, yep, I did set the drive to cable select.

Double check if the factory drive is set to CS. If it is, try switching the pair to Master and Slave.

MallyMal · Feb 17, 2009, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

Double check if the factory drive is set to CS. If it is, try switching the pair to Master and Slave.

It's hard to verify is the factory drive is truly on CS because the drive has no labels and there are 5 sets of pins instead of 3.
Factory Drive's Pins - ::::: <==5 sets of pins
The jumper is on the third set of pins.

Lacie Drive's Pins(labeled) - ::: <==3 sets of pins
The jumper is on the third set of pins.

But I did get everything working by switching the position of the two drives. I don't know why this works but is did. Now the Lacie is in the top bay and the stock drive is in bay two.

Thanks

Big Mac · Feb 18, 2009, 02:41 AM

Originally Posted by MallyMal

The optical drives are PATA and the HDDs are SATA.

Wow, seriously? I thought they switched to SATA optical drives when the lines went Intel. Aren't most optical drives now SATA?

Simon · Feb 18, 2009, 05:11 AM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Wow, seriously? I thought they switched to SATA optical drives when the lines went Intel.

Nope. On the MP it's always been PATA for the optical drive slots.

http://developer.apple.com/documenta...loperNote.html

It's the same on the Mac mini. The MBA only just switched from PATA HDD to SATA with rev B.

Aren't most optical drives now SATA?

You bet. But I'm certain Apple has made sure they have an ample supply of PATA opticals.

MallyMal · Feb 18, 2009, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Wow, seriously? I thought they switched to SATA optical drives when the lines went Intel. Aren't most optical drives now SATA?

Yeah, what Simon said above. There is a way to install the SATA optical drives in the Mac Pro though. The MP has two extra SATA sockets on the logic board that the SATA optical drives could plug into. They are kind hard to get to though because they are like behind the fan assembly.