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Paul C

Paul C

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I'm thinking of getting a DVD RW drive but want to keep my existing drive, I need another flip down platic door but don't know where to get them and are they easy to fit???
 
Paul are you talking about trying to put the DVD RW in the bay below your existing drive? Unfortunately this isn't possible on your machine without some custom modifications on your part.

The bay below the cd drive on your mac is made for 3 1/2" drives only, specifically it was designed for a zip drive when they were popular.

One option you could do is to put your old drive into a firewire case, and use the DVD RW drive as your internal drive. This will allow (depending on the model) native support for all iApps.

Which model are you looking at for the new drive?

Before ordering, you might want to look here:

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso

Do a search in the database for DVD RW drives and IDE for the interface. This will give you a list of all the drives people have tried to put into their macs, and the success and problems they have had.
 
Thats crap, so I can't have two drives in at once :(

Apple design some great machines but little stupid things like that really annoy me.

Thanks for the help!!! :)
 
Well unfortunately that is how all the side door macs were until the Mirrored-Drive-Door units came out. :(

I had the same problem you had when I still had my old B&W, but I just put one of the drives in a firewire case.

Oh well, good luck. :)
 
I've either have to change my CDRW drive for an internal DVDRW or keep my internal CDRW and get an external firewire DVDRW drive, hmmm all these options.
 
Well the nice thing is, that it is very easy to change the drives in the macs.

When you open the side door, there are two little plastic clips which hold the cd faceplate on, just gently push in on them and it easily comes off. Remove the back metal shield (at least on my B&W, it had one), unplug the cables, and remove the two screws holding the drive cage in the machine. It should slid easily out, allowing you to replace the existing unit. (Power off of course) :)
 
This has been a sore spot of mine for a long time too... but in the end I think I'm able to see the 'greater good' of the decision to not put two drives in the machine. What doesn't make sense to me is why Apple chose to add metal to the framing preventing another drive from being inserted in the second bay.

Apple is known for their forward thinking, so it doesn't stack up to see them preventing such a thing. Obviously enough people were wanting to add the second drive and did so by hacking their computers.

I have a G5 -- which only has room for one drive as well. I don't really miss the second drive, but at times I suppose it would be nice to have one. Kind of the two button mouse argument I guess.
 
Actually somewhere out there, I can't find the line anymore, is a walk-thru on how to modify a graphite g4 to add a 2nd 5.25" drive bay. Ofcourse, it requires extensive use of a dremel ;)

Brian
 
Well I know that at least with the B&W's that part of the reason was due to where the processor was. On these machines the processor was up front right underneath the top bay when the door is shut.

I can't remember where, but there was an article where a guy modified his lower bay to accommodate another CD drive. One of the things he had to do was modify the heatsink for the CPU so it would clear.

Again I'm sure this isn't the only reason, but it was an issue that had to be dealt with.
 
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