Adding Optical Drive

So I'm sitting here, waiting on my Mac Pro to ship, and the more I think about it, the more I feel I should have gotten the 2nd optical drive.
Of course, I don't want to do anything to slow down the shipping of my Mac if I don't have to. So I was wondering if anyone knew if this can be added at a later time (I'm still fairly new to Apple hardware)? Will Apple sell these drives seperately?

If/when I decide to get a MacPro I will probably just get the one drive and get the second one later. Maybe wait a bit for Blu-ray to come down. I believe the current stock optical drive is a Sony model. Say I don't go Blu-ray and instead get another "super drive" type of drive - would the latest Pioneer drive work with say iDVD?

Similar Messages

Adding optical drive to Mac Pro

I have added RAM & hard drives to my Mac Desktops, including the Mac Pro, but have never messed with the optical drive.
Recently, I decided that I would like to have a second CD/DVD RW drive in the Mac Pro. I have two questions:
1 - can someone recommend a good internal CD/DVD RW drive for the Mac Pro? I mainly do audio CDs, occasionally DVDs, do not need Blu-Ray as of yet.
2 - is there a visual guide for installing an optical drive? If it's as easy as inserting hard drives, it should be a piece of cake.
thanks!
w

Be sure to get a drive that uses ATA, such as the Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-115D, not SATA. You need to remove the tray lip.
<http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=removedrivedoor.html>
Apple provides the mounting screws. They are on the back of the metal drive holder. Set the drive jumper to CS (Cable Select). Be careful when putting the drive holder back into the Mac Pro, so you don't nick or pinch any cables.
Eject will open the upper drive. Option-Eject will open the lower drive.

Adding Optical Drive to MDD

Hi, I'm finally getting around to replacing the power supply and fan from the "wind tunnel" and would like to install an additional CDRW. I looked at the optical drive carrier and the lower bay has a metal plate in the front. Do i just force it out, or is there some clever, smooth way to make that happen?? Also, how do I select which drive opens with the eject button and how do I then open the drive that doesn't open with the eject button?? Sorry, after installing a backup hard drive, thought i was on a roll Thanks in advance, Dan

To the expert contributors, this may sound like deja vu all over again, but, given the similarity of my configuration and what I'm considering, it seems like the correct place to continue a thread started a few years ago at: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=581660, where replies are no longer allowed, since the topic has been archived.
Like the original poster, I have a PowerMac G4 with mirrored doors, two internal hard drives, and two Apple-installed optical drives: a SuperDrive and a ComboDrive. I am now thinking about buying a DVD-RAM burner, and I wish to explore my options and ask for viewpoints on the optimal way to go.
Given the current state of the market, I have narrowed down my choices to the LG GSA 4167B and the Panasonic SW-9585, each of which comes from the original manufacturer as an IDE / ATAPI drive. Based on reviews I've read at CDFreaks.com and at hardwarezone.com, the drives are rated very good (LG) and good (Panasonic), so I could go with either one of them at this point.
I have also located two vendors who have packaged those drives in FireWire enclosures. Advice I have received in another forum informs me to make sure that the converter chipset ("bridge") used in the FireWire enclosure is Oxford, not Prolific, to ensure compatibility with a Mac. The vendor for the LG drive uses a Belkin FireWire, which fortunately contains the Oxford chipset, but the jury is out on the Panasonic vendor, who has to check with the supplier of his Firewire enclosures.
Of course, there is an additional cost to get the drives in a FireWire enclosure, but that is not the issue or the obstacle. I am partial to the added functionality and flexibility offered by a portable FireWire drive instead of a fixed internal drive, so I have expended a lot of effort to identify suitable drives that also are available in FireWire devices. However, since this is a good time to consider an upgrade to my currently installed optical drives, specifically, the ComboDrive, I am asking for input on which option would be most efficient, most productive, and most trouble-free from all aspects.
I am not necessarily scared of opening the PowerMac G4 and replacing the optical drive (if it's not going to turn into a messy or impossible task!), but I also want to avoid converting my currently very stable, high functioning configuration into a zone of technical problems by introducing a "foreign" (i.e., non-Apple) element into its gut.
Additionally, I have concerns about the physical installation problems I might encounter by trying to install a different optical drive into the space so comfortably designed by Apple for its own products. Experience tells me that there always an unknown glitch around the corner, like something that won't fit properly, or a face plate on the LG or Panasonic drive that won't come off, etc.
So, before I make my purchase, I just thought I'd float out these thoughts to see if anyone who has been there and done that might have some words of wisdom of which course of action --the FireWire path (with its possible incompatibility due to a converter bridge), or the internal drive path (with its possible problems occurring in the physical installation phase and later in any software/hardware conflicts with the Mac OS).
bowlerboy_JMB
PowerMac G4 Mirrored Doors. Mac OS X (10.3.9) 2 GB RAM. 2 hard drives. SuperDrive; ComboDrive. LaCie DVD burner. LaCie FireW drive.

P6750z desktop - adding optical drive

I am adding a DVD ROM to my existing hp desktop (p6750z). I have done similar upgrades to other computers in the past and I have reviewed the 6750z service and upgrade manual. I have only one question - It is not clear to me how to remove the drive bay cover on the unused drive bay. The cover has two slots which look like they might be intended for insertion of a screw driver. Do I just insert a screw drive and apply pressure until the cover pops out?
The procedure for removing the drive cover really ought to be in the service manual.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Please see Adding or Replacing a CD or DVD Drive in HP and Compaq Desktop PCs for instructions on removing the "blank" metal plate from the secondary optical drive bay. You will need to insert a flat blade screwdriver into the slots and rock or twist the plate until it breaks free.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Please click the White KUDOS "Thumbs Up" to show your appreciation
Frank
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Adding a second optical drive

Hi,
I've have just added a second optical drive to my MP, it's an LG, "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4120B" according to system profiler. I'v left the original apple superdrive as-is, and put this in the second bay. I'm pretty sure I've set it's jumpers to "slave", but it was in an external bay and I don't have a manual or anything, so I'm not 100% sure.
Both drives work fine, on their own, but they don't seem to want to work together. Programs seem to have to wait for the 2nd drive to finish whatever it is it's doing, before they can get access to 1st drive (or vice-versa).
I was under the impression that both drives can be working at the same time, and it would seem pointless having two drives if they can't work at the same time?
I don't have to change anything about the original superdrive when adding a second drive, do I?

Hi,
I've have just added a second optical drive to my MP,
it's an LG, "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4120B" according to
system profiler. I'v left the original apple
superdrive as-is, and put this in the second bay. I'm
pretty sure I've set it's jumpers to "slave", but it
was in an external bay and I don't have a manual or
anything, so I'm not 100% sure.
Both drives work fine, on their own, but they don't
seem to want to work together. Programs seem to have
to wait for the 2nd drive to finish whatever it is
it's doing, before they can get access to 1st drive
(or vice-versa).
I was under the impression that both drives can be
working at the same time, and it would seem pointless
having two drives if they can't work at the same
time?
I don't have to change anything about the original
superdrive when adding a second drive, do I?
Looking at your specs. the drive is an LG. I have an LG as well not the same model but I set my jumper to Cable Select, that is what worked and it is the same setting as the original Sony SuperDrive.
I am certain it will work as it did no mine.
My specs:
ATA Bus:
SONY DVD RW DW-D150A:
Model: SONY DVD RW DW-D150A
Revision: 1.MD
Serial Number:
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: No
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H10L:
Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H10L
Revision: LL10
Serial Number: K18E8582228
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 1
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: No
William

Adding second optical drive

I just bought a Pioneer DVR-115 superdrive to add to my G4, but I have a few questions for you before I install it:
1. Should I make this superdrive my primary optical drive and place the combo drive in the second bay, or is it just best to take out the combo drive completely?
2. Do jumper settings come into play with optical drives?
3. Will I have any heat-related issues to worry about if I leave in the combo drive? Since purchasing the G4, I've also added a USB 2 card and two additional internal hard drives.
I think that's it for now. Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

Hi Thomas,
I started this thread regarding the same drive.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1389767&tstart=0
I'm having issues b/c I read it's best to have the opticals on seperate bus' if you plan
to burn discs simultaneously. Maybe have a read at mine and see if there is anything
else Rick and I need to know.
btw, I've thought of selling my MDD, but I just love it...my first mac...is a workhorse (despite being loud...too bad they don't sell the verafax fan kit anymore but anyways...just a great machine
Cheers,
Keebler

I removed my optical drive because i added an ssd hard drive. when i plug in the dvd to usb it will not play from the macbooks dvd program. the error message is there was an initialization error, a valid drive could not be found.

I can go into disk utility and see the optical drive and mount what ever cd is in the drive and quicktime will play it. but i would like to have the dvd program recognize the optical drive and open what ever is in it.

Freakin amazing! I installed a new 1TB Samsung SSD in my main hard drive slot and moved my old hard drive into my DVD slot and moved my DVD to an external DVD case and it would never work with movies, only software disks. I have Late 2011 Macbook Pro running Mavericks with 1TB Samsung SSD and a 512GB HDD in the DVD slot with my DVD in an OWC external DVD case.
I tried this trick but at first, this did not work because OxED was saving the new file as a text file and not a unix file. I was perplexed until I read the comments below the article and found the tip to use Terminal to change the saved file to a Unix file. I have never used Terminal before and I had no clue what I was doing, but I just followed the steps to a T and it worked. It took two tries with Terminal.
The comment mentioned "Code:" so I typed that along with the rest and it didn't work. I tried it again and this time just typed
chmod +x (with a space after the x) then dragged and dropped the saved dvd file from my Desktop into Terminal and hit enter. Worked great. Thank you. I have my DVD player back.
I also had to play around with some permissions and I had to remove the original file completely from the "A" folder, before I dropped the new file back in.
Took a little work, but I am back up and running. Thanks to all who contributed to this and yet OWC definitely needs to have all this in their manual or even provide a disk or software download that does this automatically.
Here is the trick: http://macenstein.com/default/2011/07/how-to-get-your-external-super-drive-worki ng-in-lion/
Be sure that the new file saves as a Unix file. If it doesnt save as Unix, you will need to:
Open Terminal.
Type: chmod +x
…with a space at the end (and do NOT press enter yet).
Then, drag the saved file you want to change from whereever it is saved and drop it on top of the Terminal window. The file path and filename should automatically fill in (and you should ensure that there’s a space between “+x” and the file path).
Press enter.

Adding 2nd Optical Drive into Mac Pro (first gen) makes both unusable!

Hey all,
I recently purchased a second DVD drive to go into my first gen Mac Pro 2.66Ghz.
The installation went a little rough, although OK in the end. The IDE cable seemed reluctant to want to stay in a safe place.
Upon booting however, and now had no optical drives installed!
Even System Profiler reported no disc burning capabilities except my external USB CD Burner.
I've taken the second Optical Drive out, which by the way was one of these: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/SHS202NBLS/
My original Sony (Disguised NEC drive) drive is now working again, although what on earth happened?
Should I try swapping the drives around? E.g the Sony on the bottom and Samsung on top?
Any thoughts would be appreciated,
Thanks,

I have an idea,
Perhaps the newer DVD Drive I have here is "better" than the currently installed one, and therefore doesn't like being connected as the slave (bottom) to the "weaker" master (top) drive?
Could it be something like that?

Adding 2nd optical drive

I want to add a specific optical drive to my Mac Pro. It's an early Mac Pro 2.0 quad core intel, the first generation I believe. The optical drive is a Plextor Premium 2 which has an IDE connection. I've heard mixed info about weather the first Mac Pro's were IDE or something else as far as the optical drives go.
Does anybody have any solid info for me?
I know I could mount it in an external firewire enclosure if it comes down to it, but it'd be great to be able to mount it in my Mac Pro.
Thanks.

Using the SATA slot as opposed to the other IDE was an idea for two people who wanted to burn two discs at once with more speed than usual. The diagram here should show you where things need to be, (it's the right angled connector with the pink flash on it-next to where it says ODD SATA).
If you do choose to fit one, get a small phillips screwdriver and a 300mm at least right angled to flat SATA lead, then you'll need to;
First get an IDE to SATA power adaptor lead. You'll need it to plug the original power lead into.
Then, remove the fans and memory cover, or as much as you need so you can get your hands in comfortably.
plug the right angled end into the mother board an thread the rest of the cable up behind the drive caddies………
The rest should be self explanatory.

Adding Second Harddrive in place of Optical Drive?

Hi all,
just wondering does the lenovo website offer their own hard drive caddy and hard drive for purchase so we can add a second hard drive in place of the optical drive?? That customization potential is avaliable for the thinkpad t510 correct?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-73170
On the Physical Specifications part of that page, there is something which I do not quite understand:
ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III (43N3412)
Approximate height: 10.5 mm (0.4 in)
Approximate width: 128 mm (5.2 in)
Approximate depth: 133 mm (5.2 in)
Approximate weight: 0.1 kg (0.2 lb)
ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III (43N3412) packaged in a shipping carton:
Approximate height: 40 mm (1.6 in)
Approximate width: 220 mm (8.7 in)
Approximate depth: 195 mm (7.7 in)
Approximate weight: 0.3 kg (0.7 lb)
what does the second bullet point mean? I am assuming that the first bullet point means that is the physical dimension for the actual hard drive caddy....so what does the second bullet point mean???????
thanks in advance

I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro, How can I install Windows 7 without an Optical Drive?

For clarity: I have a mid 2010, Macbook Pro. I recently decided to upgrade to a Crucial SSD drive, double the ram (8 gigs), and remove the optical drive in favor of using my old drive as a back up. I am also currently running Yosemite.
I want to install Windows 7 onto my SSD, using bootcamp. Unfortunately I no longer have an optical drive installed, which makes things difficult as Bootcamp does not even give me the option to create a bootable USB.
Now, this is where things get kinda fuzzy:
MId 2010 macbooks use EFI, and are quite capable of booting from USB. How do I know? Because I booted from a USB drive in order to do a fresh install of Yosemite on my SSD.
I have read mutliple forums and threads with claims that folks have had no problems doing this on 2008 Macbook Pros running Snow Leopard. However, what seemed to be required was some clever .plist modding. I have used both text wrangler, and x-code to do this, unfortunately upon booting of bootcamp, bootcamp instantly crashes. Naturally, I can restore bootcamp because I made backups of the .plist file.
It would seem that modffying the .plist file assumes that the option to create a bootable USB device is grayed out. In my case, it is non existent.
I have also read that folks have had success using rEFIt, however rEFIt has been forked to rEFIned, and the developer of rEFIned made mention on his site that Yosemite handles booting differently than previous versions of OSX.
WIth that, I was hoping that some kind person could explain to me whats going on, what I am missing, and what I can do to make this happen just shy of tearing down my MBP and reisntalling the Optical Drive and dusting off my Win 7 disc.
Also, my Model Number/Bootrom is MBP 6,2.
Thanks in advance!

Thank you for your reply, and the information. This is what I came up with:
I added the strings as instructed, however when I went to sign the script in terminal, I was told:
/Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app: replacing existing signature
/Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app: code object is not signed at all
In subcomponent: /Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app/Contents/info.plist
Also, here are screen captures of the lines that I added. Mine are the top string entries:
Thank you for your help, thus far!

IMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) - CPU and Optical drive fans rev up to 4000 rpm

Hello,
I just want to share my experience with my rather new Imac
I bought this Imac last April and I had the fans roaring after 2 weeks of light usage. I followed instructions like resetting the SMC, unplugging the imac and restarted.
However, I started installing other software like Paragon NTFS, VLC, Firefox and also Istat nano. This happened on a more regular basis and istat nano was showing up fairly normal temperatures - an average of 50° C and I had the CPU fan at 3800 and the Optical drive fan at 4200 rpms. According to apple support, at this temperature fans should be running at factory level or a bit more. Even when I stop all activity, the fans keep up and does not stop even after a couple of hours of inactivity on the imac. Apple support recommended that I reinstall macos on a new partition and run tests and during the tests, the only software I installed was istat nano and still got the fans going with the same result - required a shutdown to bring fans at normal levels and yet average temperatures were around 50 - 55 °C.
Eventually got apple to replace heat sensors - this did not help - still got the same unwanted result, fans reving up to 4000 rpm and not stopping and all that without going above 60°C. I was at the stage to demand a complete replacement but decided to give it another couple of weeks testing.
Last test, a complete reinstall of the OS and this time, without any other software apart from standard software delivered with the mac. Ran a few things like importing over 10,000 pictures with iphoto and some other stuff to increase activity - overall CPU usage was at 5% idle for a good few hours and could not reproduce the problem (istat nano was not installed, so I could not monitor temperature). I started installing Paragon NTFS for mac and ran the same scenarios and still no fans going crazy - putting my hands over the top of the imac, can feel a slight breeze...).
Installed other software such as VLC and Firefox 5.0 but still no istat nano and same high activity, import high volumes in iphoto and also did an empty secure thrash to increase load. CPU usage was to 95 again and still fans are behaving properly.
One thing that comes to my mind with istat nano is that, when the fans get going, the ambient value change to -140 - I do not want to rush into any conclusion but is it possible that there is some interference between istat nano and those new sensors that have come in with Imac mid 2010 (from reading mac forums, Apple has added a new ambient sensor..). Because all the time I have been reinstalling the OS, I have always installed istat nano to monitor temperature and fan speed and I always got this issue. But since yesterday, I have installed clean OS, tested, added some 3rd party software but still no istat nano and I canot reproduce the issue. I have been using the same scenario during all this testing - very high import with iphoto, viewing a film, empty secure thrash, enough to use up to 95% CPU.
Has anyone experienced this? I hope this is the cause of my problem because this mac is making my life easier at home compared to previous PC and also, I want to know that my hardware is not at fault...
I will keep you posted if I get the issue again - could be tempted to install istat nano and run the tests to see if the fans will rev up after this but not sure I want to go through another 4 days of just doing this...
regards
Philip

Hey nycbigapple2,
I'd run through the recommended troubleshooting steps for when your iMac runs slowly here:
OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
Take care,
Delgadoh

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?

Using osx snow leopard with boot camp, optical drive keeps ejecting windows 7 disc

Upgraded my late 2008 macbook pro from leopard to snow leopard. Added the max 4GB of RAM and replaced the working 250GB hard drive with a new 1TB hard drive. Rebooted with time machine from external hard drive. Now tried setting up Bootcamp to add a Windows 7 partition, but the optical drive keeps ejecting the Windows 7 disc after it spins for a few moments. The optical drive will read other discs, just not the Windows 7 disc. How do I fix this problem?

you need to install the new bootcamp drivers from windows. boot into windows, insert the snow leopard DVD, open it and follow the instructions.

Do I need a new optical drive?

My CD/DVD drive stopped working a few weeks ago. It is recognized by Windows but discs are not recognized.
My system:
dv6-1350us
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
optical drive: CDDVDW TS-L633M
What I have already done:
Uninstalled and re-installed the drive
Looked for new drivers (don't see any)
Ran the Microsoft Fix-It... it said there may be a problem with the drive
Ran the HP troubleshooter... it recognized a blank DVD-R but would not do a write test... did not recognize a blank DVD +R DL or any other DVD's or CD's (blank or otherwise).
Have I exhausted my troubleshooting options?
I am no longer under warranty and if I need to buy a new drive what do I need to know to make sure it is compatible with my notebook? I don't want the same model I have now since a lot of people seem to have had problems with it.
Thanks in advance for your help!

I added a screen shot of the price and of the part for your notebook and you can also check this link if it will work for you:
http://h20141.www2.hp.com/Hpparts/Cart.aspx?mscssid=0E983EBD415E40E8A28EE9F13089C55B&setDest=Cart&Se...
Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
...Click on Kudos if my reply was helpful and answered your question...
Attachments:
DVD drive.JPG ‏77 KB

Adding Optical Drive

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