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General discussion

can I stick a pc cdrw drive in my g4?

Jul 25, 2005 9:56PM PDT

..or does it have to be mac-compatible? I have a dvd-ram drive in there but could really do with being able to write cd's.

Also, but related, will my old scsi card work - to connect my old cd writer? Funnily enough, without trying, I'm not sure at all whether scsi has been completely dropped or not (I'm really out of touch!) I'm in 10.3.5

Discussion is locked

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Legacy bits
Jul 25, 2005 10:51PM PDT

Technically there is no difference between a Mac CDR/W and a PC one. They are the same device.
However, all these devices need drivers to make them work correctly and a lot of manufacturers do not make OS X drivers. All is not lost though. Although the system may not support "Native" burning (ie from the Finder or the iLife Suite) programs such as Toast will support the device. It is worth a try. There is also a small piece of software, whose name escapes me, that will add support for Non-Apple approved CD-R/W's and DVD-R/W.
The same theory applies to the SCSI card. However, if you are seriously thinking of using the SCSI burner, I would think again. It has to be old and slow. For a little over $60 you can get a 52X LaCie Firewire burner which will be supported by the system and the iLife suite. Don't try to mess with the SCSI device. They were bad enough when the system encouraged their use Happy

Hope this helps

P

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cdrw dilemmas
Jul 29, 2005 8:49PM PDT

thanks for the replies - I couldn't find a superdrive for sale here in the uk, but looking in ebay, I see there are some for

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You're making me cry!
Jul 29, 2005 10:22PM PDT
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louisiana tears
Jul 29, 2005 10:36PM PDT

lol,

hey mrmacfixit, whatru doin' out there in good ol' USA?

so, will this do my toast for me?

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It should
Jul 29, 2005 10:41PM PDT

take the place of Toast.
Remember though that it will not be a sophisticated or as pretty. Hopefully it will work for you. There are a number of these type programs out there.
BTW, you no longer need Dave to connect to a PC. Just regular Cat 5 ethernet cable, your router/switch and a little knowledge will do the trick.

Just sitting here, 98F, watching the humming birds feed and the 'gators crawling across the backyard into the Bayou. Guess Lady Wife will be fixin' a mess of catfish for lunch.

Good luck with the burning

P

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thanks
Jul 29, 2005 10:53PM PDT

<snort> why, I do believe those swamps are making you feverish!

but...thanks for the info, I'll try the ethernet thing first. Does anyone use DVD-RAM?

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cdrw non apple
Jul 29, 2005 4:13AM PDT

I use a sony ide 52x in my dual 1.25 G4 works fine from 10.2 till 10.3.9 with toast.never used iTunes or so to burn.
1 drawback only the native superdrive supports CDDB.

I also use a HDD (pc preformatted) ata/100/7200rpm/120Gb internal,reformatted and this works already for 2 years no hick ups
Peter

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dire straits
Jul 29, 2005 9:08PM PDT

yes, I've swapped HDs which made me wonder if a pc optical drive would also swap. Toast is the answer it seems, but it costs as much as the hardware, so same problem for me.

I'm trying to do something for nothing!!!

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MrMacfixit is right!
Jul 29, 2005 10:08AM PDT

For as little as $60, you can get an AO-105 or 106 DVD and CD burning internal Superdrive for your G4 which is supported by Apple. Go to www. Macsales.com and they will have eveyrthing you'll need.
SCSI devices other than a huge hard drive are probably not going to work as well as you would like in your G4. ATA and IDE drives are roomier and Cheaper!

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DVD-RAM might do CD-RW
Aug 4, 2005 7:21AM PDT

I believe Panasonic was the designer and maker of the DVD-RAM drive, and they designed it with a special tray that handled DVD-RAM cartridges as well as standard CD and DVD disks.

If I remember correctly, that drive could also record to CD-R and CD-RW! There is an easy test - stick a blank CD-RW disk in and see what happens.

However, it still might be convenient to have a second drive, it makes copying easier (especially copying from DVD-RAM to CD-RW!)

The G4 has an internal bay for a 2nd large (CD type) IDE drive, or you can plug in an external USB2 or Firewire drive. Check the box in the store, most brands include both Mac and PC software - more potential customers means more sales.

As for SCSI - well, SCSI CD recorders are getting increasingly rare, and were always more expensive than IDE, and more difficult to set up. And how old is that SCSI card? Really old Macs had "nubus" slots, the G4 used PCI slots instead. (PCI slot SCSI controller cards are available) I wouldn't recommend SCSI, unless you had a SCSI drive you just had to use.

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Second Bay
Aug 4, 2005 11:15AM PDT

The G4 only appears to have a second large (CD Type) bay but you will find, when you take off the front cover, that the bay is actually for a ZIP drive. The only place for a second CD drive is externally and for this you should go with Firewire.
You are correct in assuming that the DVD-RAM drive will burn CD-R and CD-R/W

P

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no such luck
Aug 5, 2005 1:59AM PDT

I've looked at various specs for the dvd-ram drive (mine's the pioneer), and nowhere is any reference to writing to a cd (I did try too - nowt). more's the pity.

The scsi card is...(looking), an Orange Grappler 906F - VERY old, scsi 1, and quite possibly was responsible for frying a PowerPC I had once, but worked fine anyway in my b&w G3.

SCSI was easily the most dangerous computing experience I ever had!!! Worth a few blood pressure points any day. It worked fine though, and extra smugness if terminated correctly.

I wouldn't recommend it either though.