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Matthew Attoe · Apr 8, 2009, 11:59 AM

Hi

Just wondering if it's possible - in theory at least. Any issues to be aware of - heat, power etc?

Can't have enough storage

Many thanks,

Matthew

AKcrab · Apr 8, 2009, 01:58 PM

Can't be done. Get a new SATA drive, they are dirt cheap these days.

olePigeon · Apr 8, 2009, 02:12 PM

Or get an external enclosure for the drive. Would be cheaper than buying a new HDD.

anthology123 · Apr 8, 2009, 03:47 PM

Would it be possible to get an PCI-Express IDE card? If so you could possibly string a ribbon cable from the card to the drive bay.

olePigeon · Apr 8, 2009, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by anthology123

Would it be possible to get an PCI-Express IDE card? If so you could possibly string a ribbon cable from the card to the drive bay.

Probably, but you'd need to get one that works with OS X.

reader50 · Apr 8, 2009, 05:44 PM

Of course you can put an extra HD in a spare optical bay. You might need to fiddle with mountings if you're worried about the PATA drive moving around.

If you have an earlier Mac Pro, you can put either a PATA or SATA HD into the optical bay. The motherboard supplies extra connections for both interfaces.

If you have the latest Mac Pros ... I haven't heard for sure if the PATA header is still on the motherboard. If it isn't, get this SATA -> PATA adapter for $15. The adapter is 100% hardware based, your Mac Pro will think a SATA drive is connected. ie - no drivers involved, so it's OS-independent.

Matthew Attoe · Apr 8, 2009, 05:45 PM

Hi,

As always, many thanks for all the replies.

Just out of interest, what is it that is limiting me not being able to use an IDE drive? I've currently slotted in an old Pioneer 110 DVD-RW drive that I had fitted in my old G5 and as far as I can see it's IDE (certainly doesn't seem to be SATA

)

Thanks again,

Matthew

ghporter · Apr 8, 2009, 07:43 PM

Mac Pros are built to support SATA drives-they have SATA controllers (I want to say as part of the logic board). You need an IDE controller (that supports OS X) to make an IDE drive work in a Mac Pro. G5 Power Macs were built for IDE drives, so they worked great in G5s.

Simon · Apr 9, 2009, 02:33 AM

Hmm, I think a couple of things got mixed up in this thread.

It's really just a question of which generation MP you have.

The first two (Mid 2006 and Early 2008) have an IDE controller in their southbridge and two PATA connectors in the optical bay. IOW you can attach a PATA HDD there. The latest MP (Early 2009) no longer has PATA ports in the optical bay. So for this PM you will need a bridge like the one reader50 posted above.

ghporter · Apr 9, 2009, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

The first two (Mid 2006 and Early 2008) have an IDE controller in their southbridge and two PATA connectors in the optical bay. IOW you can attach a PATA HDD there.

I goofed on that, eh? I forgot that SATA optical drives were fairly recent...they're so ubiquitous now that it seems like they've been around for a long time. My bad.

Simon · Apr 9, 2009, 10:06 AM

No worries.

It has actually been quite confusing. Apple was still using PATA opticals when other manufacturers had already switched to SATA long before. The Mac mini also only recently went from PATA to SATA. I was surprised Apple was able to source inexpensive PATA drives for so long. I would have expected SATA to have become significantly cheaper a while ago already simply because of demand. And Apple's not exactly known for stocking huge piles of components for longer periods of time.

Leonard · Apr 9, 2009, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe

Just out of interest, what is it that is limiting me not being able to use an IDE drive? I've currently slotted in an old Pioneer 110 DVD-RW drive that I had fitted in my old G5 and as far as I can see it's IDE (certainly doesn't seem to be SATA

)

Thanks again,

Matthew

The problem is you didn't mention that in your first post, so the experts above had to guess at the Mac Pro you were talking about. As they explained, each release of the Mac Pro is different. The latest uses SATA optical drives instead of IDE, and it's not readily known if the motherboard still has an IDE connector.

Matthew Attoe · Apr 10, 2009, 03:57 PM

Thanks once again for all the replies.

Sorry to cause confusion over which Mac Pro I have.

In my closed little mind, I thought because I'd already fitted an old G5 Pioneer 110 drive in there, everyone would automatically just know what sort of Mac Pro I have. Sorry about that - too busy typing, not enough thinking :-)

So the long and short of it is that I CAN fit an old drive in there then? That's going to be well handy then :-)

Thanks again,

Matthew

mduell · Apr 10, 2009, 06:48 PM

Even if your Mac Pro was all-SATA, you could buy a $10 SATA-IDE adapter.
Or for $30 you could buy a newer, faster, SATA burner.

Matthew Attoe · Apr 11, 2009, 10:59 AM

UPDATE:

Success - well, sort of

I now have the IDE hard drive in the top slot and the Superdrive in the lower slot - the only way round that I could do it. So far so good, everything seems to be working great. I left the hard drive in the top slot with no jumper set and the Supedrive I set the jumper to Master - anyone see any potential issues with this?

Now, the only downside so far. I'd really hoped to use this IDE drive as my Bootcamp drive but Bootcamp only allows me to select drives in the proper sata drive bays 1 - 4. Any way around this? Otherwise I have to wipe my start-up hard drive and reinstall Windows on it. Bootcamp Assistant can't move the necessary files to allow me to create a partition unfortunately. Unless you know differently

Thanks again,

Matthew

Ben OConnell · Jul 14, 2012, 01:34 AM

It is possible to put a PATA HD in a Mac Pros Optical Bays. I my self have a 320gb hd taken from a old Sky + box.. and it works a treat - no heat or power issues so far, if you keep it health by run checks within disk Utility

Only problem is that it is seen as a Blank DVD not a problem as such just a bit weird