Mini 2009 - Recycle Superdrive as external usb drive?

I am going to remove the Superdrive from my 2009 mini and replace it with a second HD as detailed by ifixit http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-A1283-Terabyte-Drive/660/8 .

I will then run OS X from the X-25M SSD and the second drive will be a 320Gb Scorpio Black which I will run XP in boot camp from ( have to use additional internal drive to boot XP from since the X25-M currently will not work with XP and I cant get XP to boot from an external drive...).

This leaves my setup without a way to work with optical media so I was looking to get an external usb drive and plug it in whenever I would need to install something from a dvd, or burn a cd etcetera.

Instead of throwing away the removed superdrive though and buy another drive, how about recycling it as an external usb superdrive? I would connect it via usb with a Deltaco sata to usb adapter I have.

Anyone see a reason why this would not work? Has this been done before?

spinnerlys said:

Where is the power to drive the SuperDrive coming from, or is this adapter able to transfer that little power from an USB port to the drive?

Otherwise I say it should work. I've done the same, but with IDE drives and external cases for 3.5 HDDs and plugging in 5.25" CD/DVD drives to power them.

Click to expand...

It comes with an AC adapter. It could draw enough power from usb for a 5400 drive, but for a 7200 one it needs more juice. I guess the Superdrive will need the AC adapter aswell.