4 Questions re installing a second Optical Drive in a Mac Pro (Harpertown)

For years I have owned and used a Sony DRX-810UL-T optical drive as an external unit with my Mac Pro "Harpertown" purchased on February 19, 2009. It was connected to the computer using the firewire cable and it worked correctly.
Some Background
Today it dawned on me I had an empty optical drive bay in the Mac Pro so I should move the Sony drive in there and eliminate a bit of the clutter on my computer desk. I read the section on installing optical drives in the little Apple manual that came with my computer but it only discussed a single drive installation.
Checked on line and found several sources describing how to do this and a couple of YouTube videos also showing how to do this. (Oddly only one of the videos mentioned the need for plugging in the power cable).
I made sure I plugged the cables into the proper units as both had helpful legends on them indicating which was for the top drive and which was for the bottom drive.
After installation I powered up and found neither drive would appear.
Checked the About this Mac item in the Apple menu and got confirmation that the system didn't see any drives. Opened the computer again and unplugged the Sony's power and data cables then closed the computer and fired up again.
The original Super Drive again appeared and worked correctly.
The Questions:
1. Since the Super drive came with the Mac Pro and was in the top space can I assume it needed to stay there and not get moved to the lower space?
2. Since the Sony DRX-810UL-T has the correct connectors does this indicate this drive can be used with the Harpertown Mac Pro?
3. If it can, did I miss setting some jumpers? I noticed both drives have one jumper in place but each appears to be in a slightly different spot than the other.
4. Since the Sony drive worked correctly with my current OS (10.6.6) using the firewire cable can I assume it does not need a firmware update to be used internally.
Wrap up
Since the original Super Drive is working properly I am sure I did no damage to it or the computer. It would be nice to be able to get the Sony DVD drive to work internally, however.
Thanks, in advance, to anyone who can offer some help with this situation.

hatter,
Thank you for this added information. Here's the current status of things.
Just to check that the Sony drive would work internally I disconnected the superdrive (ata cable and power cable) and made the Sony drive the only drive plugging it in as if it was the top drive. The jumper for it was set to cable select.
The Profiler found it and listed is in both the ATA section and the disc burner section.
I checked the jumper on the superdrive to be sure it was also set for cable select and plugged both drives back in using the top connections for the super drive and bottom connections for the Sony,
Again only the SuperDrive appears in the ATA list and and the disc burner list.
I am beginning to wonder it the problem may actually be with the ribbon cable that snakes back to the motherboard.
Since that cable has a set of dual outlets at the drive end and has them labeled for top and bottom, is it possible to plug in only one drive using the bottom connector as a test to see if data flows to the motherboard?
Is it possible some part of that cable has somehow become disconnected at the motherboard?

Similar Messages

I want to install a second disc drive in my mac pro - which ones?

I have always had all-in-ones. I now have a mac pro, and I love it. I have many disc drives of varying sorts lying around my place, most from older windows towers, but one cd-rw drive from a round base imac. Since I could never do these types of expansion on my old macs, I have no clue what will hook up in my empty drive bay.
This drive from the apple is a... sony cd-r/rw drive unit crx170E/. can I put it in my mac pro's second slot?
If so or if not, can someone briefly explain the types of cd-r connections that would/would not work so i understand the concepts?

Oh alright. Here is the same drive someone put up for sale, just in case I was speaking wrong.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-CRX170E-CD-R%2FRW-Drive--Internal_W0QQitemZ130167812083 QQcmdZViewItem
Do I need to do anything special? or will in function right as soon as I get it installed?

Installing a second optical drive....problem!

I've installed a second optical drive in my Mac Pro and when I go to system profiler it is not seeing any of the drives! The original one will show if I disconnect the new one.
Any advice please?

Hi,
make sure that the second optical is jumpered (somewhere on the back) to 'Cable-Select', not 'Master' nor 'Slave'.
There must be a sticker on the top of the drive showing you how to change the jumper.
Most Optical drives in the market nowadays come with the jumper set to 'Master'.
Regards
Stefan

Questions about Installing Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit on Mac Pro

Hi, I have an early 2009 Quad Core Mac Pro which is running Snow Leopard. I have 4 internal drives in my Mac Pro. Does WIndows 7 have to be installed on the same drive I have Snow Leopard installed or can it be on any of my drives. My boot drive has 215 gb of free space. 2 of them have 100gb of free space and my 2 tb drive has 40 gb of free space. To install Windows 7, do I have to partition one of my drives which would mean erasing all my data? How much free space do I need for windows 7 and programs, etc? Would Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit work? Any info is greatly appreciated

Read the link ""The hatter"" gave you and read the "FAQ's", it will answer quite a few of your questions. Read the Installation manual a few times to familiarize yourself with it before you start and it will make it a lot easier when the time comes.
Windows will be little bit quicker on the Mac-Boot disk only because of your SSD drive. It's rare, but you leave yourself open for problems if anything gets buggered up with both OS's on the same drive. You could lose the Mac side also. You have the chance to save yourself one less problem with it being on a separate drive.
You can install Windows on "any" INternal drive with Boot Camp. Windows can only be installed in the #1 slot on a MacPro if there are any other drives in it. (You can put it in any slot after it's been installed.) And Windows can't be installed on an EXternal drive from a Mac.
Your best bet would be either put one of the internal drives into an external HD enclosure ($15/$20) and replacing it with another blank HD and just splitting it into two partitions or try to free up more space on one of the other drives so you have more room.
Or like ""The hatter""mentioned.
"""You could put OS X HD in lower optical drive bay and put in a drive just for Windows."""
The only problem with making room on an already full drive is that some times some invisible "root" files will be left behind and Boot Camp CAN'T move it and you could get a generic "Can't Install, Files in the way" type error. So you would have to Backup, erase, reinstall to clean it up that way.
It's not so much installing Windows without Boot Camp, but you need BootCamp in order to use the "Start-up Disk" preferences. The Finder can't see the Windows install with out it. No big deal if you want to use the "Option" Key every time to reboot. Boot Camp Also has a couple of preferences like the F-Keys, etc, that you may need to use. It Could be a bigger headache. Boot Camp just makes it A LOT easier for the -non- geeks.

How do I rename the 2 optical drives in a mac pro

On the Mac Pro (OSX 10.6.8), using Toast to copy a CD, I often find that the "read" phase assumes I am going to "write" to a disc in the same Superdrive, even though there are two of them. The superdrives both have identical names, so selecting the drive is guesswork.
I've tried quite a few searches on both the Apple forums & Google, to find out if it's possible to rename these two drives (ie, in the same way that Windows allocates a drive letter to each).

Nope.
Once upon a time when ATA busses offered Master and Slave settings you could set one as Master, and Toast would automatically show that as the first optical drive on the list. It all went away once they went to cable select settings on the ATA.
I had/have the SAME issue and it got so thoroughly frustrating that I pulled one of the super-drives, (Pioneer DVR-112) installed it in an external case and stuffed a used $5 DVD-rom drive from Goodwill in the second slot.
(Actually, given how hard it is to find ATA DVD burners, you could do a lot worse than to put one aside for limited use. I'd give anything to get another DVR-112.)

Can I install a Lacie D2 Drive in my Mac Pro

newbie question, sorry!
I have a Lacie D2 500 gig external drive that has crapped out on me. I was told that it could be possible that the enclosure is the problem and not the drive itself. If I take the drive out of its enclosure can I install it in one of the Bays in the mac pro?
thanks

okaypaddy wrote:
newbie question, sorry!
I have a Lacie D2 500 gig external drive that has crapped out on me. I was told that it could be possible that the enclosure is the problem and not the drive itself. If I take the drive out of its enclosure can I install it in one of the Bays in the mac pro?
thanks
It could just be the dead/defective power adapter Lacie seems to be a known for. Before you crack the drive open, i would strongly recommend that you test it with a known, working power adapter. Perhaps a friend with the same drive? If you're lucky, i've seen some of the Lacie drives set up in Apple Retail Stores, and perhaps an employee might let you test your drive there. Worst case scenario, you could order a new adapter which will set you back $19.00.
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10030

Installing a Blu-Ray Drive in my Mac Pro...

I am considering installing a Blu-Ray drive in my second drive location on my mac pro. The drive I am interested in is this one:
http://www.videoguys.com/bdr202.html
When I spoke with the gentlemen there, he advised me that he didn't believe it would fit in the Mac Pro. How could that be? Isn't there a standard size for all media drives like DVD, CD, and blu-ray drives? Anyone know for sure if this will fit?

It is a standard sized drive and WILL fit
Although you should always be mindful to be sure that you have remove ALL bezels which can interfere with the drive fitting else the drawer mechanism. The easy way to be sure is to make it look exactly like the SuperDrive. The one that is typically missed is the bezel that's right on the end of the drawer. It can be had to spot but it's there.

Compatability of optical drive, PowerMac to Mac Pro

I have a PowerMac G5 that I am no longer using. I now use a Mac Pro, I think it's 1.1. Would the SuperDrive from the Mac Pro work in my PowerMac? If so, how do I remove it? (I know how to put it into the PowerMac)

Hi,
G5s used IDE/ATAPI opticals, Mac Pros use SATA Opticals.
Might work with the right adapter...
http://www.walmart.com/ip/28879969?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227019472865&wl 0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=55380887409&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=87884735889&veh=sem
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232004
Optical drive removal/install on G5..
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/powermac_g5_opt/
Mac Pro Optical drives...
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=249&type=Internal%20Optical%2 0Drives&sort=pop

Install RAID and SAS drives in my Mac Pro

Hello,
I have a couple of Mac Pro machines and I want to install extra drives.
I want to install 2 extra SAS 300GB drives.
I take it I need to install a RAID card also.
Will the drives connect to the RAID?
I don't want them to mirror I simply want them as single drives that I can use for storage.
My main concern is will I be able to mouint and access these SAS RAID drives without having to reinstall the OSX System?
Thanks,
Dean

Not quiet sure I follow your plan here.
I want to install 2 extra SAS 300GB drives.
OK, no problem, assuming you have 2 spare bays.
I take it I need to install a RAID card also.
OK, no problem there, either, assuming you have a spare slot.
Will the drives connect to the RAID?
Umm, if you connect them, yes. It doesn't happen automatically
I don't want them to mirror I simply want them as single drives that I can use for storage.
This is what I don't understand - why use the RAID card if you're not planning on RAIDing the drives?
My main concern is will I be able to mouint and access these SAS RAID drives without having to reinstall the OSX System?
If these are additional drives it won't affect the existing system at all. They're completely separate.
If, on the other hand, you want to take the existing system and move it to a RAID volume then yes, you'll need to do some kind of work to preserve your data, but it's not clear that's what you're trying to do.

Install second optical drive mac pro

Although there are several support documents available from Apple on how to replace the hard drive and replace the optical drive in a Mac Pro, I could not locate a pdf on how to install a second optical drive. In this case, I wanted to add a Blu-Ray recorder to my mid-2010 Mac Pro. I found what I was looking for on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHjuKL2BS4Y This is a video by the reputable OWC (One World Computing) and its very easy to follow.

Never mind
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304526

Second optical drive problem

New to macs after a 14 year hiatus. I recently installed a new pioneer BDR-205 blu-ray drive as a second lower drive in my mac pro 2009 running SL and fully updated. The original first upper drive is a model HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH41N. Pioneer and OWC both confirmed that the new drive would be plug and play. After proper installation, I confirmed that both drives could at least play a dvd.
But after using the computer for a while and then trying to open the new blu ray drive, the eject won't open it, rather eject only opens the upper first drive. The new drive shows in the system profiler but not the disk utility or anywhere else. When I click on the eject icon at top right of screen, that action hangs for a while. When it resolves itself, only the upper primary drive is available to eject. Clicking alt + eject on keyboard temporarily shows the eject symbol on screen but either does nothing or opens/closes the wrong top drive. I reboot, use the computer for a few hours, try it again to check it but the same problem exists.
FYI- I've researched other similar help threads everywhere and I don't see any options for "cable select," jumper options or the like with this new drive.
Any ideas?

I have a similar problem with the Pioneer 205 blu-ray burner in my Mac Pro (2009). It would disappear after a period of time but then eject would fail and the drive became non-responsive. Typically it would be less than half an hour before the drive would disappear. Changing Energy Saver preferences made no difference.
Also, restarting doesn't bring the drive back, but shutting down and restarting from cold does.
Alone, this isn't so bad, as the drive's failure doesn't stop the system from working — I just need to shut down and restart to use blu-ray. But I think I've found a solution. To stop the drive falling asleep in the first place, I'm using this AppleScript, running in AppleScript Editor for now:
repeat
do shell script "drutil info"
delay 28
end repeat
So, every 28 seconds, the optical drives are polled. A delay of 120 seconds was too long, but it's been a few hours now and the drive is still responsive. I'll leave it running overnight; if it's still good in the morning I think we can chalk this up as a useful workaround.
Obviously, a Pioneer or Apple firmware fix would be better. I've had something similar with a Samsung hard drive — it would fall asleep and not come back after 20 minutes — but that was far worse, as it locked up the Finder. This is benign by comparison, though perhaps indicative of a fussy SATA problem in the Mac Pros?
Hope this script helps someone out.

Installing second optical drive and the door hangs

This is just an FYI post, have not been able to find anyone else with the exact same problem, but thought I would list in the event of.
I originally installed an internal DVD R/RW Lightscribe drive from LaCie in a Power Mac G4 Dual 1Gig and it worked well! I have since purchased a MacPro and wanted to move the Lightscribe drive into the second optical drive bay. So after installing the drive and attempting to open the tray it was apparent that the door on the case would not allow the tray to open. The front of the Lightscribe tray was too bulky to fit through the opening on the narrower Mac Pro optical drive door.
Well, the folks at Lacie had attached a nameplate to the front of the tray that works fine in other configurations, but on the MacPro the clearance for the tray is narrower and it's bulk would not activate the sliding door properly.
Someone was thinking, because the tray nameplate is detachable with a little effort. I can provide photos if need be.
Tray closes as it should now.

Hi TCherry,
Your situation interests me since I was thinking of doing the same with a previous optical drive from an old G4. I also wanted to add it to my MacPro's 2nd slot.
Are you still willing to supply some pics to see what you did?
Rio.

Second Optical Drive Install Problem

Hi,
Picked up a Samsung Lightscribe from OWC to add as a second optical in my Early 08 Pro Tower. Changed the jumper to CS, installed and booted. No drives found. Disconnected the new drive and still no drives found. Do I need to change the jumper on the existing drive? I was under the impression it was set to CS by default.
Tks
PMcK

Thanks, that is indeed what happened. I somehow pinched the cable when sliding the carrier back into place. The tech at Macshop Northwest (who replaced it) recommends taping the cable up out of the way before sliding the carrier back into the space. He also said he had to take the whole thing apart to route the new cable down to where it connects on the motherboard. Way past my comfort level, but at least its fixed now.

Cannot find a mounting to install a second hard drive in my Qosmio x70-A

I have looked all over the internet and have gotten no where in my search for a mounting for the secondary hard drive bay in my laptop. Anybody know where I can get one?
Also I've included pictures of the secondary drive bay and the primary bay. From the looks of it I can't use the same type of mounting in the secondary bay as in the primary.
Attachments:
20140714_220231.jpg ‏1868 KB
20140714_220242.jpg ‏2068 KB

I have the same issue, and have found Toshiba support to be completely unacceptable on this.
After getting bumped around from sales to tech to sales because "we don't answer that question, you have to talk to the other guy", I finally got a "straight" answer from sales:
"Sir, we DO NOT sell that part, and therefore I CANNOT tell you a part or model number for the part you may need to install that second hard drive. The only thing you can do is talk to our parts supplier over at National Parts (1 800 524 8338) and ask them to provide you with the model numer or sell you the part."
At this point, I was annoyed, but thought that at least with a straight answer I could proceed.
After a very short hold time with National Parts, a very kind associate answered the phone and listened to my tale of woe. Unfortunately, she was unable to help and said:
"Unfortunately, sir, I have listed that while there is no caddy for the second hard drive slot on you X70-A specific model, there is supposed to be a mounting bracket. Unfortunately, we have been trying for MONTHS to have Toshiba give us the part number, spec, or any other information other than 'mounting bracket', and therefore I'm afraid we have neither a part to sell you nor a part number for you to go looking for one".
At this point annoyance is full-blown anger. How is it possible for Toshiba to make something that should be SO SIMPLE so VERY VERY VERY complicated and impossible.
"Sorry, if you didn't want to spring for the dual drives when you bought it, you're hosed forever sucker." Does not seem like an excellent customer service strategy.
This was the FIRST Toshiba I'd ever decided to spend my hard-earned money on, and now it's a machine I can't upgrade because they can't get their act together with their parts supplier or in-house over a 3 dollar bracket?
UNACCEPTABLE.
The pictures the original poster shows are exactly what I have, no need to add more o fthe same.
ANY help, Toshiba?

Can you install a second hard drive on a Touchsmart320-1130 PC?

This question was solved.
View Solution.

Here are the specs for your HP TouchSmart 320-1130a Desktop Computer. No, you can't install a second hard drive in this computer. The HP TouchSmart and All-in-One computers have more in common with laptops than they do with desktops.
Frank
{------------ Please click the "White Kudos" Thumbs Up to say THANKS for helping.
Please click the "Accept As Solution" on my post, if my assistance has solved your issue. ------------V
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
HP 15t-j100 (on loan from HP)
HP 13 Split x2 (on loan from HP)
HP Slate8 Pro (on loan from HP)
HP a1632x - Windows 7, 4GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6130y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6320y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240
HP p7-1026 - Windows 7, 6GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6787c - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240

4 Questions re installing a second Optical Drive in a Mac Pro (Harpertown)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for