Does the iMac load and eject 3 inch discs?

I have had a need of retrieving info off of the old square hard-plastic 3.5 diskettes (remember those?). I bought an external 3.5 inch diskette USB player which plugged into my PC computer. However, the program for the player came on a 3 inch DVD-type disc, not the current 5 inch variety. On the PC, the disc is loaded flat and the disk drawer has a notched circle which is meant to hold the 3 inch discs.

I have now converted to an iMac 21.5 desktop, which of course has a vertical slot drive for DVD's.

I want to load the diskette USB player program onto at least the Windows 7 part of my iMac (loaded via Bootcamp). However, I am concerned about loading the 3 inch program disk into the vertical iMac slot drive. Since the iMac loads in that vertical slot, I am terribly afraid the 3 inch disc will get inside and not "play" and, worse, not be able to be ejected.

Bottom line: can I safely load and eject the 3 inch disc into the iMac slot drive?

Don't do it!

In short tadd. NO
Here is a link to the same question in Apple Support.

3 Inch Disk in my iMac

Sorry to be the barer of bad news

Maybe there is a device that can be hooked up via USB2 or FireWire that can do the trick

Cheers

I thought of a possible solution

Thanks for the warnings.

A possible solution: in my PC which I have not yet shut down, I will copy the 3 inch disc onto a 5 inch one, and then load the latter into the iMac.

Nicely thought out and a great solution ...
Thanks for posting back

Cheers

tadd5181 said:

Bottom line: can I safely load and eject the 3 inch disc into the iMac slot drive?

Click to expand...

As others have already said...no! We have old threads here on MacForums to prove it.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/194566-help-stuck-cd.html

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-notebooks/60640-mini-cd-stuck-drive.html

- Nick

And read what your manual says about not using 3" discs. When all else fails read the instructions?

tadd5181 said:

I have had a need of retrieving info off of the old square hard-plastic 3.5 diskettes (remember those?).
I want to load the diskette USB player program onto at least the Windows 7 part of my iMac (loaded via Bootcamp).

Click to expand...

I don't believe your 3.5 disk player will need the software on that little optical disk - at least as far as MacOS X is concerned. I have an IBM 3.5 disk player which I use for precisely the same reason you've outlined. Just plug it in! The Mac OS will recognise it. Its power demand is low, which suits Mac better.

For the Windows 7 part of what you're trying to do, and as you've already thought out, you should transfer the contents of the optical diskette to a full-sized CD, using your Windows PC.

A PS or afterthought, and a general question in relation to this topic ..... wasn't there at one time an adaptor insert for (horizontal) computer CD trays? The advent of the vertical slot might have messed that idea up, but I remember using an adaptor when mini optical disks first arrived on the scene.

tadd5181 said:

Thanks for the warnings.

A possible solution: in my PC which I have not yet shut down, I will copy the 3 inch disc onto a 5 inch one, and then load the latter into the iMac.

Click to expand...

I was going to suggest that or you could copy it to a usb stick or cant you find a driver on the net?

Plugged it in and it worked

After thinking of a work-around, I did just plug the player in and it worked right off the bat....thanks all. Say, here's another thing I almost did wrong: I was about to slide in a SD memory card without looking and it almost went into the DVD slot. I am assuming had I actually got the card in then it would have disappeared into that maw.

tadd5181 said:

Say, here's another thing I almost did wrong: I was about to slide in a SD memory card without looking and it almost went into the DVD slot.

Click to expand...

Yupp...some folks have posted here having done this!

- Nick