Is installing a Yamaha INTERNAL CD-RW possible?

N

Numbers1820

IXOYS
I have the PowerMac setup as you will see below in my signature.

I am interested in purchasing and installing this Yamaha internal CD-RW device:
http://yamahashoponline.com/product.asp?sku=2269599

My question is that I thought I'd heard somewhere that you're NOT supposed to take out the original PowerMac CD-ROM drive at all, or else your 'puter won't boot...or something like that. Is this true?

I asked Yamaha CD-R tech support and they said:

"In regards to your e-mail, the requirements for the drive is as follows:
-G3 Power Macintosh, 300Mhz or faster.
-64MB of Ram
-Built for OS X; Compatible with OS 9.1 or higher.
-Avaiable E-IDE port."

So far, so good (assuming that "available E-IDE port" means the same thing as the ATA-33 connection that comes with my PowerMac, right?). ...But, this does not exactly answer my question. In a further inquiry to Yamaha, the answer was:

"I do not think it will damage your system but you may want to contact apple to make sure."

I have searched the Apple Knowledge Base archives. Could not find anything directly related, though these two articles are close - AppleCare docs #58429 and #58698. The most hopeful thing from these is that, apparently, it is possible to replace the optical drive with another. But it does not specify whether or not you may replace the original, Apple drive with another, 3rd-party one. That's my question.

Oh, and I did not find this specific question addressed anywhere on this site, either.

Answers? Ideas? Trepidations? Come one, come all!
 
I'm running a G4 450 (Sawtooth), and I took out the internal DVD-ROM and replaced it with a Samsung CD-R/RW with no problems. So long as you know what you're doing it should be fine - I haven't heard anything about the computer not booting up anymore by replacing anything in it.

Maybe someone just said that when they messed up their own install and wanted to blame someone else. ;)
 
If in doubt about the drive the best place to check or compatability is www.xlr8yourmac.com
They have a compatability database there. I can tell you that many aftermarket optical drives pretty much kill your chances of starting off of CD. I replaced a CD-ROM with an HP burner in a G3 350 for a friend and it won't boot by holding "C" or select the CD as the startup disk.

I replaced my CD-ROM with a Toshiba DVD drive and I can select a CD as a startup disk although I'm still unable to boot from it by holding the "c" key.
 
I'm sure that it will work just fine, but you might not be able to burn at max speeds because of the slow buses.
 
Yes...After I posted my original thread, above, I did come across xlr8yourmac and ran a search for "PowerMac" and "CD". Most of the posts there (this is the URL I used; I hope it links you directly to it: http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/action.lasso?-search ) back up what you, Rhino_G3, and the others have been saying. Bottom line is that it doesn't look like I can count on the drive booting my system, though I can count on it working. Looks like the best thing for me to do is to, first, contact Yamaha and make sure I can return the drive if I have issues (particularly as Y is getting out of this line of the business); second, install and test; third, keep my stock CD-ROM drive around just in case.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help, guys!
 
Sounds like you've got it under control. That's exactly how my friend has his set up. He kept his stock CDROM as well. Just in case he needs to boot off of it. Mine will boot if it's selected as the startup disk in the system prefs. So it's not too big of an issue. I also have a few installs on different HD's just in case I can't start up off one for some reason.

Edit: You can't link directly to a search. If anybody else is looking for the main Drive database page it's located HERE
 
You could also consider getting an other drive if the Yamaha is not bootable. You will want a bootable drive.
I personally have a Plextor 40x10x40x CD burner which works perfectly in my G4, including booting :)
 
Reply to ksv:

What attracts me to this particular Yamaha is that it has that uber-cool T@2 (burns designs on the unused half of the CD) technology and comes bundled with lots of software (Photoshop LE, etc.). The external FireWire version is retailing for about $250, but the internal version for about 1/2 that.

Thanks for the tip that your Plextor works just great.

I already have a ClubMac CD-RW (external FW). Its 16x10x40 specs are just fine for the amount of CDs I burn. BUT its TEAC WB615EB mechanism will NOT work with Retrospect. I'm pissed off at the ClubMac tech who sold me BOTH Retrospect and the drive at the same time (as if they would work together); unfortunately, I didn't discover the error until after their 30-day return policy had expired, so I was left high and dry. ...This is all to say that I've been hunting for another CD-RW solution that would actually work with Retrospect. For $130, I thought the Yamaha might be a good road to go. On the other hand, I might decide that I can live with my current CD-RW, even with its limitations.

BTW, what, technically, makes a CD drive "bootable" or "non-bootable" anyway? It seems frustrating and bizarre to a guy like me who's only semi-geeky that there would be these kinds of minute incompatibilities....

Thanks again, fellas.
 
Keep in mind that Yamaha is getting out of the burner business. No more drives from them.
 
I used to run a Yamaha 2100? in my G3 bw. The only thing you need to do is put the driver extensions in system folder and it will boot. My prob, was that when wanting to extort music from other cds, the drive only saw 3 tracks-Yamaha couldnt help. Dont have that issue with my new silver G4 (have this drive installed as my 2nd cd burner)
 
I know that Yamaha is getting out of the disc burning business. I actually saw this as a plus because...
a) They're more likely to discount the burners they do have, sooner or later. (And is $130 for one of their internals a good price? I'm not comparing them to some of the bargain peecee brands, but against another high-quality vendor that includes great software, etc.)
b) Yamaha, as far as I can tell, is a solid company with a great rep. I'm not worried that they're getting out of burners; I'm confident that they'll stand behind their burners because they have their whole reputation to uphold.

Any problems with this logic?
 
None at all. I like Yamaha burners. I have a Yamaha Firwire burner and it works great. They did say they would continue support for anything they produced.
 
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