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useydess

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 9, 2023
31
0
Camarillo CA
so i've recently been attempting to run DVD+R DL discs on my quicksilver 2002 Powermac running OS X leopard 10.5.8 but apparently the superdrive doesn't accept said format, however it seems that it will accept a DVD+R DL that has a ISO burned to it so im not too sure. i'm wondering if i can put a non apple DVD drive into the system and it'll accept it, i have a old windows XP tower which is shot but the R and W drives should be fine, so would it be possible to install new DVD drives onto the system?
 
You could try it out.
I have used a variety of non-Apple optical drives over the years, and never had a problem with the Mac recognizing another optical drive.
Swap the 3rd party drive with the internal optical drive.
You could connect a 2nd optical drive in the Zip drive slot, but I don't remember how you could attach it inside. Probably easier to just swap the two optical drives.
 
aight, i was considering adding a second one since the Quicksilver i have can support 2 but the door doesn't seem to open for the second one, probably a lock in place before you install it, anyway i'll try it out
 
There is no door for the lower slot. It's just a blank bezel. You have to push it out from inside the case. Normally, the replacement is just another bezel, with a slot to allow a Zip disk. The lower slot is for a Zip drive, and that is a part of the optical drive carrier. You can't even install an optical drive in that lower slot without some surgery to the drive carrier.
 
i see, well i guess i could try to get a USB Drive(although it kinda makes the built in drive pointless lol)
 
hmm... When did you last use a USB 1 device? You will remember that it is really slow.
I would look for a Firewire CD/DVD burner (if you can find one) - way better (much faster) than USB 1.1,
But, you should try the simple swap of the existing optical drive, with that drive from the old PC.
If it works better than what is in there now, you can be happy with that.
 
alright, i'll try that out, although im pretty sure the mac can handle 2.0 since i have a few 2.0 USB flash drives which work fine but i will check about firewire
 
Yes, your G4 Quicksilver can handle 2.0 devices (it is compatible), but it cannot do USB 2.0 speeds, the maximum connection remains USB 1.1 @ 12mbits/second, and your USB 2.0 flash drives will then work at USB 1.1 speed.

A USB 3.0 device, when used on a USB 1.1 bus, will also clock down to the speed of that (slow) bus.
Any fast USB device becomes a slow device when plugged in to a slower connection.
 
apparently the superdrive doesn't accept said format, however it seems that it will accept a DVD+R DL that has a ISO burned to it so im not too sure
The DVD-R and DVD+R formats only apply to blank discs. Once the disc has been recorded to, both formats are effectively identical and work in both kinds of drive.
 
so if i were to stick data onto a disc like a USB device the system will then see them and use it? or do i have to burn data to the disc for it to use it
 
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