I'm a long-time PC user. I have recently been using my G4-450 to replace my "day to day" Windows XP machine. I'll spare you the reasons for now - maybe in a different post.

With Windows, I'm used to extensive driver support for everything: printers, scanners, hard drives, CD-ROM, CD-RW, and so forth. This means I can buy any IDE device and rest assured it will work.

I've been learning that Mac OS X isn't so forgiving.

That said, here's my question. Can I use "off the shelf" IDE devices (hard drives, CD-RW, DVD-RW, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM) in "off the shelf" external FireWire cases under OS X? Will they work? Do I need special drivers?

I'm looking at using the Pyro FireWire enclosure - it uses the Oxford 911 chipset. I realize it may be more expensive to go this route than simply buy a unit from LaCie, QPS, etc., however I've got so much extra IDE equipment lying around that I'd rather re-purpose it. In addition, I'd like to be able to swap it between my PC and Mac without worrying about compatibility issues.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

I guess you never know until you try, but if it's FireWire, that's enough. It should work. And if you want to put a nice new 7200RPM Ultra ATA drive inside your PowerMac, say, there's no problem there either.

CD drives aren't a problem, but CD burners could be, because the software you use to burn them must support it.

Fortunately if you're talking about expanding any of this through FireWire you also have the advantage that Macs are likely the largest consumers of FireWire devices, so you're not likely to find a company stupid enough to make a Windows-only FireWire device.

-Rob

I have two of the pyro cases, a 40 gig hard drive in one and a Pioneer DVD-RW A04 in the other, both work flawlessly!

No Drivers needed.

Let me know if you have other questions on how I got them set up.

Thanks for the tips on hard drives and the DVD burner.

The iTunes 3 web page includes a list of "approved" CD burners. Is the this the same "compatibility" list for Finder's ability to burn discs?

Eric

how does one play movies using the firewire dvd-rom drives? DVD Player doesn't recognize it