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

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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

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.

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

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?

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

System wont recognize my second optical drive

At times my system will not recognize my second optical drive which is a pioneer blue ray. When I reboot sometimes the drive is reconized and sometimes not. When it is reconized after being on extented time it will sometime disappear.

I have the same issue with my. Mac Pro. It will not (at times) recognize my Pioneer blue ray drive. Random although more often as of late.

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?

Second optical drive ejects for no reason

I've installed a Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-ray drive in the secondary optical drive bay in my Mac Pro 1,1, which has two 2.66 Dual-core Xeons, 5GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 7300.
Since installing the Blu-ray drive, the eject button seems to have a mind of its own. Notably, it will eject the tray with nothing in it when the computer wakes up, when I launch Toast, and when I start the computer up. Has anyone else had this problem with a secondary drive in their system. What should I try to make this stop.
Thanks in advance.
Chris

Checked that upon installation. I've now discovered that it ejects when a disc is put into the drive. It sort of can't "hold anything down" and after a few second in the drive, it spits the disc back out.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Chris

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.

Mac Pro Slower after adding second hard drive

My work computer is a Mac Pro 3,1 running Lion 10.7.3 with 4GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive. It was performing well running programs like Adobe CS5 and Final Cut Pro until I added a second 1TB drive (Western Digital WD1001FALS). After that upgrade Photoshop is way slower while programs like InDesign and Final Cut are noticable slower.
Is there any reason for this? Anything that can be done outside of a memory upgrade?

Let me try to direct you to some tips on CS5, and suggest that more hard drives properly used (OS, scratch, data, backup, array) can help, but that one drive and 4GB RAM is under performing.
Optimize Photoshop CS5
Optimizing Photoshop Overview
Adobe Photoshop FAQ
Optimize performance Photoshop
What are you using the WD1001FALS for? data? scratch?
And open Activity Monitor and check pageouts. Unless your use if very very light, I can't see that as being enough for even CS5 code and some OS X let alone any more apps.
Activity Monitor memory usage

Boot from second optical drive

Hello,
My Mac Pro has two optical drives. The top tray (drive 1) is not working. I need to boot from the Install CD in the second, or lower, disk tray. When I hold down the C key at startup, it does not seem to recognize the CD in drive 2. Do I have to specifically point to that drive (option key?), or should it automatically go to the loaded tray? Please help. Thanks!

Sorry for broken link...:-(
Startup manager: How to select startup volume;
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
-- kaz-k

Second Optical Drive

I have a Pioneer Drive installed as a second drive worked perfectly for the first 6 weeks after installation. Profiler sees the drive as OK I am able to eject drive door but the drive will not recognize the media. I have checked the connections and they are OK firmware seems OK the primary optical drive works fine but Nothing, nada zip zilch on the second drive. Any ideas? anyone?

So it DID work fine for 6 weeks? I'd start with zapping the PRAM by holding down Apple-Option-P-R the instant you turn the computer on. Hold it down for two of the "bong" sounds. See if that helps.
If not, put in Disc 1 of the restore discs that came with your computer (put it in the working drive). Reboot and hold down the D key on your keyboard. This should boot the hardware diagnostics on the disc. Run the basic diagnostics. If it finds nothing, run the extended diagnostics. If either of these indicate hardware errors, have Apple fix it.

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.

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 optical drive

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