Resolved Some questions about IDE to SATA for DVD drives for a Powermac G4

[Heindijs]

Hello everyone.

I bought a Quicksilver Powermac G4 at a thrift store today and sadly the DVD drive is no longer working. I felt like it was to much hassle to clean or lubricate it (in fact, I did that to no effect) so I'll just buy another one. The problem is that there are obviously no more IDE disc drives manufactured nowadays.

I've seen some IDE to SATA adapters online and some recommendations on this forum but the main thing I'm concerned about is which DVD drive not to buy. I assume not all SATA disc drives will work or maybe they will? That's what I'm unsure about.
I also would like to know if there are any precautions when choosing an adapter. Are there really bad ones out there, or will most work fine?

Thank you

UPDATE: It works perfectly now with the Startech IDE SATA adapter. I'm using a random ASUS dvd drive I found online (with M-disc capabilities even) and it works great.

 

[eyoungren]

Hello everyone.

I bought a Quicksilver Powermac G4 at a thrift store today and sadly the DVD drive is no longer working. I felt like it was to much hassle to clean or lubricate it (in fact, I did that to no effect) so I'll just buy another one. The problem is that there are obviously no more IDE disc drives manufactured nowadays.

I've seen some IDE to SATA adapters online and some recommendations on this forum but the main thing I'm concerned about is which DVD drive not to buy. I assume not all SATA disc drives will work or maybe they will? That's what I'm unsure about.
I also would like to know if there are any precautions when choosing an adapter. Are there really bad ones out there, or will most work fine?

Thank you

In all honesty, unless it's a proprietary drive pretty much anything will work. I have only encountered one Blueray DVD-DL that refused to work and it was pulled from a specialized HP computer.

I have no recommendations for adapter brands. However, a rule of thumb around here is this: Green circuit board, inexpensive and possibility of not working right, red circuit board, moderate to pricey but you can expect it to work well.

I might suggest though if you're going to bother with an adapter, just go the extra mile. Find a PCI-SATA card for Mac (or a cheap PC one you can flash) and use that. You can connect your SATA DVD that way and also use SATA hard drives or SSDs. With a PCI-SATA card you also avoid the Quicksilver's 128GB HD limit.

 

[Heindijs]

In all honesty, unless it's a proprietary drive pretty much anything will work. I have only encountered one Blueray DVD-DL that refused to work and it was pulled from a specialized HP computer.

I have no recommendations for adapter brands. However, a rule of thumb around here is this: Green circuit board, inexpensive and possibility of not working right, red circuit board, moderate to pricey but you can expect it to work well.

I might suggest though if you're going to bother with an adapter, just go the extra mile. Find a PCI-SATA card for Mac (or a cheap PC one you can flash) and use that. You can connect your SATA DVD that way and also use SATA hard drives or SSDs. With a PCI-SATA card you also avoid the Quicksilver's 128GB HD limit.

Thank you for the reply!
Alright so it’s good to know that pretty much any sata dvd drive will work. I had looked into adapter brands already before but I seem to find only the green ones. All the red ones are the wrong way around (for adapting IDE drives to SATA) is there some brand of red adapter which would be good? Also what are some of the problems I could encounter with the green one (hope it isn’t a fire hazard or anything lol)

I think the PCI-SATA board would be a project for later on. There are already a couple of hard drives installed which is enough for now but it’s a good idea to do, thanks for the info!

 

[reddrag0n]

do what i did for both my QS and MDD, get the starteck IDE to Sata board. it is a red board and has jumpers on it. Make sure the jumpers are set to Master and ASC (for cd drive operation). they work when connected to your ide cable and they allow booting from cd too.

 

[Heindijs]

do what i did for both my QS and MDD, get the starteck IDE to Sata board. it is a red board and has jumpers on it. Make sure the jumpers are set to Master and ASC (for cd drive operation). they work when connected to your ide cable and they allow booting from cd too.

Thanks! Would that be this one?

 

[Project Alice]

Honestly IDE optical drives are super easy to find. I probably have a stack of them somewhere. If you don’t want to go through the trouble check eBay.

That said, I do have an IDE-SATA adapter plugged into my FireWire enclosure as the DVD drive in it was bad. So far it’s been working fine.

The SATA PCI card is a good idea too. There is one that comes pre-flashed on eBay that works well unless you want it to work in OS 9.

 

[reddrag0n]

Thanks! Would that be this one?

Yes, that looks to be the one

 

[Heindijs]

Honestly IDE optical drives are super easy to find. I probably have a stack of them somewhere. If you don’t want to go through the trouble check eBay.

That said, I do have an IDE-SATA adapter plugged into my FireWire enclosure as the DVD drive in it was bad. So far it’s been working fine.

The SATA PCI card is a good idea too. There is one that comes pre-flashed on eBay that works well unless you want it to work in OS 9.

Yep, I also used to have stacks of IDE optical drives from the time I used to receive lots and lots of computers for free. However, all of my stuff has been donated a couple of years ago to people and places that need it because I needed to make space. (I wish I kept the PC133 RAM sticks now though 😅)

Yes, that looks to be the one

Thanks, I went ahead and bought it together with a new drive. I’ll see how it turns out.