G4 , dual cdrom?

S

system-f

Guest
I just got a G4 800mhz that has the CDRW drive in it and I think a zip drive below the cdrom drive. Can I remove the zip and install a DVD- + R/RW drive IDE/66? What drives are compatable with the mac? How do I eject the 2nd drive tray if this does work (assuming it will since the 2nd channel just seems to be a standard IDE channel). I have advanced PC hardware skills, but this G4 is a different and much more interesting world. Also, I have performed searches in the forum, but found nothing exactly on dual optical drives and I am quite new to the mac world as far as supported hardware.

Thanks
 
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Your Mac's Specs
PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz (June 2004), 2.5GB, Airport, black 5G iPod 30GB, white MacBook 2.0 2GB
As far as I know, the only ever PowerMac G4 that had 2 optical drive bays was the MDD (Mirrored Drive Doors). As the lowest MDD was a 867MHz G4, I presume yours must be a Quicksilver, the predecessor of the MDD.
Technically you could connect a second optical drive, instead of the ZIP, but the problem is that it wouldn't fit in the case. The upper bay is a 5.25", and the lower bay (the ZIP drive) is a 3.5" bay. Modifying this shouldn't be too easy.

Ejecting isn't a problem though. When you have a second optical drive attached, you can open the second tray by pressing option+eject on your keyboard (option = alt).
When I added a DVD burner to my G4 (it came with a Combo), Mac OS X had put a little Eject button on my menubar. Clicking on it gave me the choice which one to open, and showed me the more conveniant keyboard shortcut. :cool:

The most compatible DVD burners would be Pioneer, as Apple's Superdrive is a Pioneer too.
 

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