Trying to help out a friend

Duff-Man says....with out knowing all the specifics of the Mac you are talking about the only answers you'll get are gpoing to be general ones. So, in general, for a straight dvd-only drive, any IDE will probably work. What I might suggest though, is getting more info of the make/model of the Mac and the make/model of the DVD drives you are looking at and then do a quick check at xlr8yourmac's database where you can see what has worked best for others that have installed different drives.....oh yeah!

Keep in mind that cheap drives probably use plastic parts and will break-down much easier/faster. I would suggest just getting this. It's a DVD burner that is the same kind that Apple uses so it works with iLife for only $99. If I had a tower instead of a laptop, I'd get it tonight!

so you mean the CRT iMac... because the TFT uses 'normal' ide drives...

for the CRT iMac I'm not sure... mmm its IDE allso... but they used laptop-type drives I guess... if it has FireWire connections: buy a LaCie D2 or Porsche Design drive with FireWire... works fine, no need to dissasemble the mac... and you're 100% sure it is compatible ;-)

<Edit: another Idea... wich is not so eastethical but cheaper...

I'm sure its IDE... and since you craked the iMac open allready... get a longer IDE cable, get a powercord extensioncable, find a way to take the connectors outside the shell and connect a normal 'internal' drive there... you can make a plastic box to put around it so it looks a bit nicer... but I think this is the cheapest way to do it... or you have to find the iMac Drive on eBay or so... >

i know there is some difference i believe the slot loading imac cable is smaller than regular and the older imacs are standard ide

http://www.welovemacs.com/imacemacdrives.html

they have several drive options for the iMac Slot-loading and tray loading versions... there is allso one company seling slotloading drives to replace the trayloading ones in early iMacs

http://www.mcetech.com/imacrw.html

grts

Jo

as they say on: http://www.welovemacs.com/imacemacdrives.html

"DVD capability is not possible on tray loading iMacs!"

so you won't get it I guess... but I might be wrong... and I think you can upgrade to OS9.2.2 by getting the updates on apples site... and give it a try...

and abuot adding the iBook drive: I think it can work... but you need to remove the front of the tray I guess because that won't fit.

and you will see the difference in 'look' but thats not prior to having a drive that works ;-)

or go for the slot-loading cd-rw drive mctech delivers... you won't get DVD but you will be able to write cd's...