DVD Burner

January 24, 2005 11:44 AM

I'm replacing the zip drive in my 450MHz AGP "Sawtooth" G4 with a DVD burner. Any tips?

The new drive was a steal, but it's not entirely compatible/supported (it will burn CDs with iTunes and DVDs with Toast but it won't be bootable) so I need to keep the original CD-ROM drive. I know I could just house the new drive in a USB or Firewire enclosure, but I never use the Zip100 drive anymore and I am determined to follow this route. I have found the bezel door that I will need on-line. The question I still have is, what type of carrier/hardware and cables will I need to mount the drive in the lower (zip) bay? Will I need to rearrange anything on the inside of my tower to make room for the DVD burner in the lower bay?

In case it's relevant, I'm running OS X 10.3.7 and plan to upgrade to Tiger once it is shipping.

posted by mds35 to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Also might be relevant: The new drive is a Pioneer DVR-107D DVD±R/RW. I'll be using Patchburn to support burning. I have tested this method using a friend's identical system (another 450MHz Sawtooth G4).
posted by mds35 at 11:58 AM on January 24, 2005

You'll need to cut the metal frame that supports the Zip drive. This is not trivial work. Then you will need to come up with a way to support the weight and vibration of a DVD burner without any frame around it.

In other words, its unlikely you'll be able to do this without a lot of customization work, and you would be better off going the route of an external enclosure.

Alternatively, have you looked into flashing the DVD burner? Installing newer or replacing with OEM firmwares may add compatibility, which will allow you to replace the CD-ROM.
posted by AlexReynolds at 11:59 AM on January 24, 2005

That is an attractive option, but will flashing the firmware likely allow me to use the DVR as a boot drive? I would rather not have to re-install the old drive when I install Tiger or run diagnostics.
posted by mds35 at 12:46 PM on January 24, 2005

FWIW, I can boot from my Pioneer DVR-107D, which is using firmware v1.16. Your mileage may vary.
posted by AlexReynolds at 1:52 PM on January 24, 2005

This link has instructions in French for bringing the drive up to v1.18. Not sure what Patchburn will bring it up to. Good luck!
posted by AlexReynolds at 1:55 PM on January 24, 2005

Thanks, AR. I'll see what I can glean from your links and I'll let you know how it works. I will attempt the installation this weekend when I take possession of the drive.
posted by mds35 at 1:58 PM on January 24, 2005

Alex, thanks for talking me out of my foolish plan to remove my zip drive. Not sure why I thought it was a good idea at the time. I've played around inside of my G4's tower enough to know better. Once I got back inside I saw what a task it would be.

The new drive has been installed without incident. It burns from iTunes and Toast without any problems and it shows up in my System Profiler as "supported."

I haven't yet attempted to boot from the Panther installer discs, because I lent my Panther installers to a pal whose own copies were too scratched to use for a drive repair he needed to perform. Once I get them back I will try to boot. If I am unable to boot from CD, I will follow the links you provided for help.

I will post the results here in case anyone can use the information at a later date.

Thanks again!
posted by mds35 at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2005

Update: Now I run Tiger and can boot from cd.

Everything is peachy.
posted by mds35 at 7:23 AM on November 30, 2005