- Joined
- Dec 23, 2009
- Messages
- 336
- Reaction score
- 7
- Points
- 18
Hi all,
First off, sorry for the e-novel. ;P
I brought a used G4 Quicksilver 2002 just before Xmas, which unknown to me had a dying DVDRW drive.
Basically, what was happening, was I'd put a disc (-R) into the drive, which would 99.99% of the time would make the whole G4 lock up and give me the multi-coloured beach ball icon on the screen and refuse to eject the disk, either from the eject key, or any other means (left MB, open firmware, terminal).
At this point, the drive could still read media, but it couldn't write (although, I have managed to write one CDR with it, about 2 weeks back).
Now, today I decide that I need to make a backup of my Tiger disc (I have an original, in immaculate condition, but don't want to get it scratched as the dvds are about as rare as rocking horse poop), so I stuck the DVD into the drive and nothing happened.
I opened System Profiler and it said no optical drive detected (or something similar) and the drive refused to eject the disc, even after a restart.
Anyways, long story short, I restarted the G4 and the drive showed in SP, but still refused to eject the disc. It took me seven attempts to get the DVD to eject and now, the drive won't read anything; it just makes a whirrr...clunk...whirrr noise, then spits the media back out.
The device in my G4 is a Pioneer 103 (Below is the blurb about the drive from SP)
Now, I've been told conflicting stories about replacing this drive and TBH I don't know who/what to believe, so I thought I'd ask you nice folks.
One person has said I need to get a Pioneer SuperDrive, because I'm using Tiger (10.4) and others have said I can use almost any DVDRW, as long as it's IDE/ATAPI.
BUT if I get a bog-standard IDE/ATAPI drive, will I be able to (1) use it to boot from my 10.4 media (The person who told me to get the SuperDrive said that other IDE drives wouldn't allow you to boot/install) and 2) Will I be able to use itunes/disk utility to burn CD/DVDs? Again the same person told me if I got an IDE drive, I'd need to buy Toast, as you can only burn from the Finder with Pioneers.
Many thanks.
First off, sorry for the e-novel. ;P
I brought a used G4 Quicksilver 2002 just before Xmas, which unknown to me had a dying DVDRW drive.
Basically, what was happening, was I'd put a disc (-R) into the drive, which would 99.99% of the time would make the whole G4 lock up and give me the multi-coloured beach ball icon on the screen and refuse to eject the disk, either from the eject key, or any other means (left MB, open firmware, terminal).
At this point, the drive could still read media, but it couldn't write (although, I have managed to write one CDR with it, about 2 weeks back).
Now, today I decide that I need to make a backup of my Tiger disc (I have an original, in immaculate condition, but don't want to get it scratched as the dvds are about as rare as rocking horse poop), so I stuck the DVD into the drive and nothing happened.
I opened System Profiler and it said no optical drive detected (or something similar) and the drive refused to eject the disc, even after a restart.
Anyways, long story short, I restarted the G4 and the drive showed in SP, but still refused to eject the disc. It took me seven attempts to get the DVD to eject and now, the drive won't read anything; it just makes a whirrr...clunk...whirrr noise, then spits the media back out.
The device in my G4 is a Pioneer 103 (Below is the blurb about the drive from SP)
Code:
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-103:
Firmware Revision: 1.49
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: No
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No
Now, I've been told conflicting stories about replacing this drive and TBH I don't know who/what to believe, so I thought I'd ask you nice folks.
One person has said I need to get a Pioneer SuperDrive, because I'm using Tiger (10.4) and others have said I can use almost any DVDRW, as long as it's IDE/ATAPI.
BUT if I get a bog-standard IDE/ATAPI drive, will I be able to (1) use it to boot from my 10.4 media (The person who told me to get the SuperDrive said that other IDE drives wouldn't allow you to boot/install) and 2) Will I be able to use itunes/disk utility to burn CD/DVDs? Again the same person told me if I got an IDE drive, I'd need to buy Toast, as you can only burn from the Finder with Pioneers.
Many thanks.