Replacing Internal DVD Drive with HDD in Mac Mini?

Has anyone tried replacing the internal DVD drive with a hard drive, giving you TWO internal hard drives? I think you need a cable to match up the SATA connectors. Then you could use a USB external enclosure for the DVD.
Thanks.

Very interesting, thanks el Duque. Too bad MCE doesn't make a carrier for the Mac Mini. I wonder if one for a Macbook Pro can be easily modified to fit?
I have just learned that the SATA connector on the logic board for the optical drive in Macbooks and the Mini is called a "Slim-SATA" connector. Instead of the power side of the connector having 15 pins, it only has 6, with both types of connectors having a standard 7-pin data side. Both power and data hook-ups are achieved in a single connector -- a power side and data side.
Since the ports on 2.5" hard drives are "standard" SATA connectors, AND they don't match up to the logic board's connector location (like with the connector location on the optical drive), a cable is needed to run between the HDD and the logic board connector.
Unfortunately, such a cable is not available -- yet. Instead, one has to be fabricated out of two types of SATA cables -- a Molex 4-pin to SATA 15-pin power cable and a combination cable that looks like this:
http://www.byteccusa.com/product/SATA/SATA-XP118/SATA-XP118.htm
The fabrication involves replacing the molex 4-pin power end of the combi-cable with the SATA power end of the molex 4-pin to SATA power cable (cutting and soldering). The BIG question now is whether a HDD will work with just the two-wire power cable (of the combi-Sata cable) that an optical drive normally uses? Anyone know if it will? Thanks.

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Can i use ANY external CD/DVD drive with the NEW mac mini?

We just got the newest Mac Mini and want to get an external drive for importing and burning CD's and DVD's.
Can we use ANY external CD/DVD drive or do we NEED to use the "Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive."
Thanks
Eliot

Maybe.
I've had some situations where a non-Apple DVD drive would not do a particular job. When I tried the same project with the Apple SuperDrive everything worked perfectly.
This is an area where I would not try to save money.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC684ZM/A

Can I replace the optical drive on a 2010 mac mini with a second hard drive?

i was just wandering how easy it would be (if at all) to replace the optical drive on my 2010 Mac Mini with a second hard drive
we use it as a media server only, and the DVD is almost never used

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/drive_bracket/datadoubler/

How can I get a replacement internal DVD drive?

I bought a refurbished Toshiba P55t-A5202 a few months ago. The internal DVD drive seems to be failing and doesn't always recognize dual-layer DVDs. Some DVDs recognize and play fine. Others aren't even detected and the system thinks no disk is in the drive. I would like to replace the opical drive. I am comforable opening up the sytem and swapping the drive, I just don't know where to buy the replacement part.
Does anyone know who to contact about getting a replacement internal DVD drive?

Hi, and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
Which exact iBook model is it?
You can choose from this list:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/index-ibook.html
Apple may not have the replacement discs at this point, but it's worth a try. You could try giving Apple a call and see if they have them available. If they do, they will send them to you for a fee.
You will need the serial number of the iBook when you call.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA27282?viewlocale=en_US
Good luck.

I converted from a PC to a Mac Mini. I have my PC documents backed up on a DVD disk. I have an external DVD drive connected to the Mac Mini. I want to open them up and save them to the Mac, BUT....when I put the DVD disk in the Mac is NOT reading it!

I converted from a PC to a Mac Mini. I have my PC documents backed up on a DVD disk. I have an external DVD drive connected to the Mac Mini. I want to open these documents up from the DVD storage and save them to the Mac, BUT....when I put the DVD disk in the Mac is NOT reading it!

Hi Joe,
Thanks for your quick response. I should add....it worked before. When I previously inserted the two DVDs into this remote drive, and I went into finder, I could click on the "remote device" line and see all my saved documents (excel, word, etc) on the DVD and open them on the Mac. Now I cannot see them, when I try to open them on the Mac, nothing happens, nothing is displayed. I just re-tested the remote DVD drive with a CD and, no problem, it opened up the CD via iTunes and I cold play the CD. SO......I know the remote DVD drive (it's an LG by the way) is fine, it's something to do with some settings on my mini mac,especially where I could open it previously. I do not remember changing any settings since then.
When I go into system preferences and click on CD/DVD it gives me options of how to open up a music CD (default is iTunes), a DVD (default is iMovie), etc. The problem is my DVD is all miscellaneious files/documents. I just want to be able to see them in the finder. I also tried to open them via microsoft word, from the remote disk and again, it could not open the drive, even though some of the documents were microsoft word documents. Again, I was able to open them previously and the DVD is not corrupted in any way.
Any additional advice?
Thank you!

Replacing Internal optical drives on a 2008 Mac pro

I am looking to replace my internal optical drives on a 2008 Mac pro. I am thinking of purchasing Pioneer BDC-207 - Mac Pro Kit 16X 5.25" Internal Blu-ray Player, DVD.
Does anyone have any experience with this product or recommendations?

<http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BD12XMP INT&Category_Code=STORBD&Product_Count=1>

Can I set up a raid0 of 3 hard drives on W700 by replacing the dvd drive with a third hard drive?

I want to use this(http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-parts/detail.page?&DocID=PD022803) to replace the dvd drive.
Then can I set up a raid0 of 3 hard drives on W700?
Thanks

that is not possible.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

Using External Boot Drive with New Intel Mac Mini

I have a 1st Gen MacMini and use an external 7200 RPM Lacie drive as the system boot drive along with all the applications.
If I were to purchase a new Intel Mac Mini, is it possible to use the current external drive as the system drive or is there some conversion steps that would be necessary ?
Thank you.

You can use the hardware, but will have to repartition and reinstall the OS from the disk shipped with the new Mac Mini.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220
If you create a disk image of the Lacie on your Mini, you can later use setup assistant to restore users and applications from that image.

Replaced CD/DVD Drive with SSD in HP Notebook

I would like to replace the cd/dvd drive in my hp pavilion dmv-1000 with an SSD. I know that Optibay makes a caddy for several apple computers that does this. Does any one know if HP or anyone makes a caddy that enables me to do this? Thanks!

Celebr8tor wrote:
I apologize. That should be DM4 - 1000. it is in the pavillion family of HP notebooks. I will continue to research this and if I find something I will post it here.
thanks for the response.
Go to ebay and look for: hdd 2nd caddy dm4-1060us.
Dv6-7000 /Full HD/Core i5-3360M/GF 650M/Corsair 8GB/Intel 7260AC/Samsung Pro 256GB
Testing - HP 15-p000
HP Touchpad provided by HP
Currently on Debian Wheeze
*Please, help other users with the same issue by marking your solved topics as "Accept as Solution"*

Cost to replace internal DVD drive?

(I tried posting this as a reply to a related question No luck.)
DVD's eject from my built-in drive after ~30 seconds, although a blank DVD does not. CDs appear to work okay. I've tried resetting PRAM and SMS, but to no avail. I've read other related threads and see no solutions other than:
1) have Apple replace the drive
2) buy an external drive along the lines of Re: What external read / write DVD drive is best for imac
My sense from other discussions is that #1 is not worth it. I have no clue how much this would cost. Can anyone tell me?
Also, does anyone have current recommendations for an external drive replacement? (I do know from other threads that the Apple external superdrive is a no-no for my machine.)

Not all optical drives are Mac compatible.
Most Mac compatible drives you will only find to be purchased online.
Here are two on Amazon.com that are cheap and Mac compatible
http://www.amazon.com/LG-GP10NB20-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B004K2Z4MS/ref=sr_1 _3?ie=UTF8&qid=1398883289&sr=8-3&keywords=Mac+compatible+external+LG+optical+dr i ve
http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Portable-External-GP40NB40/dp/B009DS6OFU/re f=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1398883289&sr=8-7&keywords=Mac+compatible+external+LG+opti c al+drive
Here's another source for Mac compatible optical drives. These are better quality optical drives.
These are also tray loading drives.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/VLU2SD24XS/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MR3F82SD24S/
Good Luck!

Internal hard drive size limit on Mac Mini?

am thinking about getting an intel mac mini as a music (iTunes) server.
I see that Apple offers them with internal drives of either 80 or 120 GB.
Since I intend to use it with a large library, I wanted to ask if there is a maximum capacity for the internal drive. Assuming that I can replace the internal drive (I would be surprised if I couldn't), I was hoping to be able to use a 500 GB, 750 GB or even a 1 TB hard drive inside.
I was under the impression that since the Mini uses SATA drives, I can put one in of any size. Tell me if I'm wrong.
also: I would imagine that replacing the hard drive on a mini is more involved than doing it on a standard desktop, but I'm sure that there are helpful instructions (with copious illustrations) as to how to do it.
(I can always go with external drives - although, unfortunately, I believe my choices are limited to FW and USB; it would be nice if the Mini could use eSATA and PCI slots.)
thanks for your input.
w

I can't imagine how one would hack a mini in such a fashion - but I don't know anything about their architecture.
I have done something like that on a linux pc machine - it's fairly simple to attach an external eSATA drive to an internal SATA port, you just need a special cable to do that & power it externally. But I wouldn't imagine that the mac mini has SATA ports that are both accessible and available...
where might I find a step-by-step guide to replacing the internal drive?
thanks
W

Using a 1TB G-Drive with macbook and mac mini

After checking the net for solutions, I have decided to post here. Hopefully I haven't missed something as to not be redundant.
Currently I am using time machine to do incremental backups on my unibody macbook to my g-drive wirelessly through my airport extreme via usb.
I ordered a unibody mac mini and I was wondering if I could connect the mac mini to the g-drive via firewire 800 and back up both mac mini and macbook to the one drive.
I know time machine can handle the multiple computer situation, but I don't know if it can handle the 2 inputs simultaneously. USB from the airport extreme and firewire 800 directly from the mac mini.
Thanks for the help,
Reardan

Well after experimenting, I found that the mac mini would not recognize the g-drive while it had both USB and firewire plugged in.
So what I did was unplug the usb and shared the g-drive through the mac mini with file sharing.
The issue is now that my macbook does not seem to be able to deal with the new path.
I can view the contents of the g-drive but the .sparsebundle file can not be opened on my macbook. It tries to mount it as a disk image.
Anyways, any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks

Can I replace the DVD drive with a BlueRay Burner?

I have the HP Pavillion a6647c. I assume so but don't know if it takes more power. I learned from an ealier lost I can't really upgrade my video card as my power supply isn't strong enough. 230W I think.
Just incase some knows this answer too......my goal is to burn my HD movies off the hard disk and on to blue ray disks. Currently the playback of the movies on the PC is a bit jerky and I've been told by Canon I need a better video card. Will a movie I burn to a blueray also be slightly jerky on my TV through my blueray player or is it just when played on the PC?
Thanks

Hi,
Welcome to the HP Forum!
pszwec wrote:
I have the HP Pavillion a6647c. I assume so but don't know if it takes more power. I learned from an ealier lost I can't really upgrade my video card as my power supply isn't strong enough. 230W I think.
Just incase some knows this answer too......my goal is to burn my HD movies off the hard disk and on to blue ray disks. Currently the playback of the movies on the PC is a bit jerky and I've been told by Canon I need a better video card. Will a movie I burn to a blueray also be slightly jerky on my TV through my blueray player or is it just when played on the PC?
Thanks
Yes, you can update the DVD burner to a Blu-ray buner. A movie that you have burned to a Bluray disc should play smoothly on your Blu-ray player. Your PC and your Blu-ray player are apples and oranges.
Kind regards,
erico
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Want to replace DVD drive with second HDD on Probook 6570b regarding to setting BIOS

After replace CD/DVD Drive with HDD in matching Bay I got a problem with BIOS. After starting I got a message "there is no a Bootmanager" and CTRL+ALT+DEL. Then is only posible F9 and Boot Option to use manualy Hard Drive. Please tell me what I have to do to solve this problem.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Berislav wrote:
After replace CD/DVD Drive with HDD in matching Bay I got a problem with BIOS. After starting I got a message "there is no a Bootmanager" and CTRL+ALT+DEL. Then is only posible F9 and Boot Option to use manualy Hard Drive. Please tell me what I have to do to solve this problem.
Hi,
Check the boot priority in the BIOS. Make sure that DVD is not the first boot option. It looks like when you swapped the DVD for the hard drive it won't skip boot from DVD to the primary hard drive and stays on the DVD option but the DVD ROM is not there anymore and it finds the new hard drive. However, the operating system is on the primary hard drive which is a different boot option. It finds the new hard drive but because the OS is not there it says no bootloader because the bootloader is on a different hard drive.
Dv6-7000 /Full HD/Core i5-3360M/GF 650M/Corsair 8GB/Intel 7260AC/Samsung Pro 256GB
Testing - HP 15-p000
HP Touchpad provided by HP
Currently on Debian Wheeze
*Please, help other users with the same issue by marking your solved topics as "Accept as Solution"*

Replace dvd-rw drive with hdd (lenovo 3000 n200)?

I would like to know if it is possible to replace internal optical drive and put insted a second hdd. If it is possible, then which type of hdd will suit 2.5" SATA or PATA?

I have a Lenovo 3000 N200 0769-ANU. I doubt you can fit an HDD into the optical drive slot, good luck.
Link to picture
My model takes a 2.5" SATA drive natively. The appearance of my SATA drive outside my machine looks like the illustration, which is larger than life size.   Look at the bottom of your laptop. There is a hatch covering the HDD, fastened by  2 screws.   Remove that hatch to see what your current HDD looks like.
I looked but could not find an illustration of a SATA drive installed in the bay of a compatible laptop. Below is an image of the drive connector as it would look from the top and outside of the laptop bay.
Link to picture
This connection differs greatly from that of an old-style IDE connector, you should be able to spot it instantly if you remove the hatch.
    A fast option to add a 2nd HDD to your model is to acquire an eSATA capability. Unfortunately the 2nd HDD will have to be external. Buy an eSATA-Expresscard adapter, an eSATA capable external hard drive enclosure, and a compatible SATA HDD. For best usability,get the same make, model, and capacity as the SATA drive in your laptop. That way you can swap the HDDs when (not if) the HDD installed in your laptop dies or gets terminally confused.   HDD prices vary. The other hardware can be purchased for about $50.
    An eSATA connection is just as fast as the connection to your HDD built into your laptop. This is a unique feature of eSATA connections. Unfortunately you will have extra cables and a box outside your machine, possibly with an external power supply for the 2nd HDD.

Replacing Internal DVD Drive with HDD in Mac Mini?

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