Adding Superdrive

My iMac G4 has a comb drive. I'm considering purchasing a Superdrive (a Pioneer A115 or DVR-110). Since installing it myself risks voiding Applecare, how much does Apple charge to R&R a new optical drive? How long does it typically take (I live about 3 miles from the Apple Store in Northridge, Ca)?
Alternatively, I'm seeing that others are purchasing external DVD writers and using third-party patches to get Superdrive support and the use of iMovie and iDVD without the actual Superdrive. Am I reading this right? How reliable are these patches? Anyone using one currently?

Hello Ed,
Last night I tried to install a new Pioneer DVD 109 drive, with no directions. Now the computer is unable to find its hard drive, as I get the question mark alternating with the two person icon. I've taken the thing back apart 3 times, and can't seem to keep the pin plug connected to the HD when I reinsert the drive frame. Got any tips?
Also, I peeled away some copper tape from the bottom of the old drive. Do I need this stuff for the new drive?
Finally, is there any physical way to open the drive, so I could boot up on the Apple Hardware test CD?

Similar Messages

Adding superdrives post purchase

I changed my mind about a second superdrive on my mac pro. Are there any out there yet and any of them good?
Can I install them myself?

An Apple reseller "may" sell internal DVD±R/RW drives although I don't believe that many would do. However, you can go to pracitcally any computer store and buy yourself any off the shelf DVD±R/RW drive. Apple currently uses 2 OEM suppliers. The first being a Pioneer DVR-111D and the other is a Sony (actually a flashed NEC I believe) so you can just as easily buy either of these off the shelf.

Intel Mac Mini Vs G4

ok, i have a G4 Mac mini (1.42 80gb 512mb combo)
i am looking at the new mac mini intel 1.5ghz with added superdrive and possibly HDD upgrade.
my main tasks are browsing the internet, word processing, listening to music, watching dvds, using msn & dvd backup copying.
is there any point in me selling my Mac mini i have now to get the new version?
and how much do you think i will get for the mini on ebay ?
thanx for ur help

At the moment, I think G4 minis are selling pretty well on eBay, so prices are holding up reasonably well, but as in all things, it's as much about how you describe the item and such things as how many other minis are being auctioned at the time and how their prices are going.
Personally I would say that given what you have in mind as very common uses for the system and the performance of G4 minis in general, I'd say I would keep the system you have for a while yet - partly because it's not all that much worth swapping to an Intel model unless you need the extra power, and partly because in six month or so time, there will be a far better feel for how well the Intel models perform in real-world tasks, and whether the performance benefit would be worth the extra outlay.
If you were seeking to use the mini for demanding tasks in which Universal applications were available at the present time, I'd say it was worthwhile to change, but on the basis of your outlined use, I'd say it really isn't.
I know as the owner of 2 G4 units, I'm happy to keep them both.

Adding windows to MacBook Pro using boot camp and external USB SuperDrive

I attached my Mac SuperDrive to my MacBook Pro and inserted the disc to add windows. The disc shows up on the screen. Went to boot camp to install and after I chose the percentage of use, press continue, it says no USB drive recognized. What do I do? Tried all USB ports with no luck

The Boot Camp instructions are located here: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/
The Boot Camp Discussion Community is located here: https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

Adding Bootcamp Partition, on SuperDrive failing Macbook 2011 Early

I need to install my Windows License on my Macbook Pro 2011 Earyl, Lion. My SuperDrive began to fail nearly a month ago. My goal is to try install windows from an USB Windows 7 Bootable, helping me with rEFIt. Initiating process when trying to make my partition (with Bootcamp assistant, Bootcamp updated) I found that it doesn't allow me to make partition because 'Boot camp couldn't find a Windows CD on the CD Drive, please insert a CD...', something like it, my SuperDrive is failing and rejects whatever CD I insert, but that's not the problem, by now the issue I find is to be allowed to make a partiition in the same way as OSX allow for Air and new Macbooks without SuperDrive unit. I've heard that BootCamp 4.0 allow making partition without inserting a CD, I've tried locate Bootcamp 4.0 in Apple downloads but I don't find, to downgrade... I've searched over Apple, forums over internet, tried and tried, many ways, and now I'm tired with this. Actually I live in a remote place, dont have access to anyone with an external CD Drive, it could make it easier, I know. I tried too make a partition with Disk Utility, but it didn´t worked... Please help me, I'm very dissapointed with this case. Thanks, a lot of thanks in advance.
PD. I've read about a fail design in SuperDrive for Macbooks Pro, anyway I will ask for warranty.

Post copied from previous discussion thread https://discussions.apple.com/message/17117482#17117482
This may be an old post, but for those still looking for an answer you can get the 13.12 (December 2013) AMD graphics driver from https://www.dropbox.com/sh/915fpdtgbgoksct/kOY7bKHgKq Select "Download->Download as .zip".
I only modded the driver for the windows 7 64-bit install, so if you using windows 8 under bootcamp you'll have to follow the included instructions yourself.
Please let me know/like this post if this works for you. (It would be great if you could report whether it worked based on using Win 7 or Win 8)

Added PATA HD, SuperDrive no longer ejects

Hi All,
So I installed a PATA (Seagate) HD in the top bay of my MacPro, set to master. The SuperDrive is in the bottom bay and set to slave. After booting back up, both drives showed perfectly (I already had a DVD in the drive). I watched my DVD, copied files to the HD, no problems. Then I went to eject the movie. I noticed the Eject key didn't work so I dragged the DVD to the Trash, and out it popped.
Now however, I'm unable to get anything back into the drive. The Eject button doesn't work, nor does Option-Eject, nor does the Eject menu item (/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Items/)
Any thoughts?

At least in most other Mac models the optical drive
is always MASTER. Did you change this when you
installed the Seagate drive or was the optical drive
already set as SLAVE? If not I suggest returning the
optical drive to MASTER and setting the Seagate as
SLAVE. I would also suggest you re-check the cables
to be sure they are seated correctly. Also verify
that your installation work didn't inadvertently
block something or leave something disconnected.
Thank you for your reply. I was always told that in an IDE chain with an HD and a CD drive, the HD always had to be master. (Something about the controller on the HD being better than those in CD drives) So I'm a bit timid to try that, though if anyone else cares to corroberate, then I'm more than happy. I don't think the cables are the issue as both drives transfered gigs of data this morning. Unfortunately when I try to eject, I don't even hear a "thunk" sound of the drive trying to open and being physically blocked. It's just completely unresponsive.
EDIT: I just now got a paperclip and pushed the eject button on the drive. The tray popped out, popped a disc in, and the DVD is now mounted and functional on my desktop.

Adding a second superdrive

i was wondering if i buy a macpro with only one super drive can i add one later and are the superdrivers SATA or just ATA ?

I added a Pioneer 112D to mine; purchased it from OWC. They have a video online that explains the install. Just remember to set it to cable select.
Hardest part (and it wasn't that bad) was removing the plastic bezel on the front of the unit.
Took about 10 minutes to do the whole job.
And since you have Leopard, there will be a eject button in your menu bar, with a choice to open/close either drive, which you can also do with the eject key for the top drive, and option/eject for the bottom one.

Help.. Superdrives open and will shut then reopen

I have a Mac Pro 2.8 8-Core, and I just added a second drive to the machine. It boots fine and the trays are shut. When I push the eject button on the keyboard both trays open, then I push the eject button again and they both go in, hang for a second then both come out again. I cannot get them to stay shut in the machine. I got the second drive from the apple store, so it's an apple product... What do I need to do?
Thanks !

Hi Scubaking,
the'jumpers' are located on the back of the SuperDrive right alongside the other connectors (power and data).
The jumper itself is a little piece of plastic with a wire inside of it, which connects two of the avaiable pins.
A diagram which pins to connect or to leave open in order to get 'Cable select' is printed on the case of the SuperDrive itself.
Stefan

My video sound does not work when added to a pdf

I just bought adobe acrobat pro and when I insert a video it plays but with no sound. I have tried several different videos (quicktime) and they all do the same thing. I am working on a mac

Think I got it to work:
Just added the SetSystemStream in the button scripts that jumps to the chapter menu. Now I can go directly to a chapter point and have the subtitles on or off, depending on the GPRM value (that is set in the Language select menu).
Not sure if this is the best way, though. Scripting can be done in many ways - I tend to use separate scripts rather than having a few and more compex scripts. Works for me - most of the time.
G4 Dual, FCP5, DVDSP4, BitVice, Soundtrack Pro Mac OS X (10.4.3) 2 GB RAM, SuperDrive
G4 Dual, FCP5, DVDSP4, BitVice, Soundtrack Pro Mac OS X (10.4.3) 2 GB RAM, SuperDrive

Adding and configuring a second hard drive in a Power Mac G4

I am using a Power Mac G4 with the original 20GB hard drive and running OS 9.2.2.
I would like to upgrade to 10.4 (Tiger) installing it on a 80 GB Seagate Ultra/ATA 100 which I need to install as a second hard drive.
This is where my problem arises. From what I have read I cannot install OS 10 on a drive configured as SLAVE. On top of this Apple article ID 106728 has a note not to “change your Apple –installed disc drive to ATA ID-1 (slave) when adding other ATA devices.”
Is this article correct or am I misunderstanding it? I was hoping I could just install the new drive on top of the original and switch the configurations of the drives making my original drive the SLAVE and the new drive MASTER and just install OS X on the new 80GB drive.
Or can I put the new drive in the position of my original drive configure it as MASTER and put my original 20GB drive above it and configure it as slave?
I am hoping someone can let me know if these configurations will work.
Another question is: If I switch the position of my original drive will I lose access to the data on it?
I would like to keep the OS systems on separate drives because I need to continue to run my old software and Heidelberg scanner (SCSI, running on LinoColor Elite 5.1 for which updated drivers are not available). This will not be possible in classic. I want OS X on the larger drive as I will be loading updated software eventually and it will become my main OS system.
Power Mac G4 450GH, 768mb ram (AGP graphics ) Mac OS X (10.4) Currently running 9.2 and will be upgrading to OS 10.4

Hi, Thelisa -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
Is this article correct or am I misunderstanding it?
Yes, to both - the article is correct, and yes, you seem to be misunderstanding it.
In the context of the article, "Disc drive" does not mean a hard drive. Earlier in the article it states -
Solution
"Disc drive" refers to CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, Combo drives, SuperDrives.
The reason is that on most (if not all) G4s, an optical drive must be jumpered as Master in order for it to be a bootable drive. So, if an optical drive has been jumpered as Slave, it can not then be used to boot from the OSX Install disk.
You will need to place the drive to be jumpered as Slave in the top position of the bracket (the drive sled), and the one jumpered as Master in the bottom position of the sled.
The reason for this is the location of the connectors on the IDE ribbon cable (the data cable) - the one jumpered as Master needs to be attached to the end connector of the cable, and the one jumpered as Slave to the middle connector of the cable.
Because of the physical limits of the cable itself, the one jumpered as Slave must be on top, else the connectors won't reach to the proper drive.
Which drive is jumpered as which is your choice, but the one jumpered as Slave must be on top.
If I switch the position of my original drive will I lose access to the data on it?
No.
The designation of Master or Slave is, for the most part, simply to allow the Mac to have a unique physical address for each drive, so it can tell one from the other (this is separate from the pathname addressing that the OS uses). Re-jumpering a drive nor changing its physical location will not affect its contents nor their usability.
One result that may be important sometime is when the machine in question is set up as the Target machine in a firewire Target Disk Mode arrangement - only the drive jumpered as Master will be visible on the Host machine.
Article #58583 - Firewire Target Disk Mode

Wonder if the external USB Superdrive works on AppleTV?

Was just wondering if the external Superdrive option for the Macbook Air works with the USB on the AppleTV. So that you could watch dvd's.
Anyone that knows this?

The only sure thing is that AppleTV port is currently useless to the user unless they're a fairly advanced or brave hacker.
There are things posted daily here that seem entirely feasible and useful such as connecting a keyboard to AppleTV USB to enter text into YouTube search - there seems to be no reason why this couldn't be done, but AppleTV doesn't allow it now and might never do.
Buy an AppleTV (or not) based on what it is known to do now rather than on speculation of what it could be able to do if only Apple did this/that, added a function/feature etc etc....

Mac SuperDrive Ejects Disk Before Importing The Full CD

Hey, I recently got a USB SuperDrive for my MacBook Pro, and while I was importing the final song in an album, it ejects it, cutting the song off midway. It also shows the import screen without any changes, if you could help as to how I can fix this, it'll be a great help, thanks

No error messages at all.
There are 10 chapters, none with special characters. I should add that I burned a copy last week without any problems at all... since then, the only thing I did to the project was split up a chapter (it was too long for my liking), and added closing credits. I then added a slideshow to the project because there was lots of room left on the DVD (from the first burn). I still won't fill the DVD so size (movie length) is not an issue.
I found a similar thread (ok, identical problem as me) read through all four pages and am troubleshooting from suggestions on that thread... (currently, am creating a disk image of the project.... should be done in 1 hr, 27 minutes). I'll check that with the Apple DVD player and then try to burn the image with disk utility.
Thanks for the response... still looking for an answer though.

Replacing superdrive with a laptop drive or a 3.5" drive.

Is it possible to take out the superdrive and somehow mount a laptop drive in it's place or a low power 3.5" drive? I see that MCE has an "optibay" for laptops who would like to replace their superdrives. I'm just wondering if it's possible to use this on an iMac as well or somehow figure out a way to mount it?
http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

Hello
This topic should really be in the +*Expanding your Intel-based iMac*+ forum.
Are you wanting to exchange the superdrive of your new 27" iMac for a 3.5" HD? In which case the answer is yes, but remember that it voids your guarantee, as the only user upgradeable part is the memory. You would be much better off adding a large fast external FW800 drive, at least while in guarantee.
If you did decide to upgrade anyway there are links available on how to open up and change a hard drive. But I would look more carefully at mcetech.com as their web page seems to be way outdated. They are offering to sell OS X v10.5.1(Leopard) and the iMac memory upgrades they offer are of 667MHz DDR2 PC2-5300, while the new iMac's use the much faster 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM.
Adam

Added a new printer; other printers in Printer Utility list dissappeared

Ok, i did something unconscious. Added a new printer (Canon MP160) to a list of many while the Printer Setup Utility was open. No harm i figured, when i rebooted 4 printers from my list were gone. Found them in Users> Library> Printers. Any way to simply drag & drop them back to the list? I don't seem to be able to add tyhem....
Thanks for offering any insight or solutions.
Peace
15" MacBook Pro C2D 2.33/120/3g; Mac OS X (10.4.8) Pismo G4/550;SuperDrive;DLink BT;1GB RAM

Because the printers are still showing in Users/Library/Printers then that shows that they are still installed on your Mac. So it is possible that as the Printer Setup Utility was open it may have caused your current problem, although from what I remember most of the Canon installers I've run close all open application before installing? Anyway, if another restart doesn't get them back into view then it could be that the printers.conf file (a hidden file located in etc/cups) has not updated correctly. Open Safari and type "http://127.0.0.1:631/printers". You should see all the printers currently installed and if this file is 'damaged' then you may only see the MP160.
Of course, it may be a lot simpler than this. It could be due to the View menu in the Printer Setup Utility. Select View > Columns and enable 'In Menu'. If there is no tick next to the other printers then that can be one reason.
Also, if the other printers are not currently connected to the Mac you are using, then that can also stop the printers from being displayed. Also, if they are shared printers and the Mac sharing them is off/sleep, then that can stop them from appearing also.

Adding ssd to an iMac early 2008

I have an iMac early 2008 with a hd by sata. I have also SuperDrive by pata/IDE. If I change the hd by a ssd by sata and a 1 tb hd by pata, I will increase the speed of my iMac? Another option is to install osx on a ext. FireWire 800 ssd with a box, which is the best option?

Adding the SSD for a boot/application volume will dramatically increase the speed of booting and application launching. Retrieving data from the pata hard drive will be slower than the existing SATA interface that your hard drive is on now. I don't know if that's enough of a speed hot to actually notice. The SSD will make the computer feel MUCH faster, I put one in my MacBook and it feels like a completely different machine, it's the single best upgrade I've ever done.
I don't know how much an SSD in an external FireWire enclosure will speed thins up but I'm considering the same thing as I don't want to open my iMac and risk messing something up.

Adding Superdrive

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