PowerMac superdrive fit iMac?

Hi,

I have bought an iMac G4 and the DVD drive is knackered. It'll read CD's, but it won't read DVD's at all. Doesn't matter if they're retail discs, genuine Apple discs, DVD-R, DVD-RW's, nothing. If it's got DVD in the name, it won't read it. Just spits it out a minute later after what sounds like no attempt to read it. Tried an audio CD and that is fine.

I will be trying a cleaner disc to see if that rectifies the issue... but if that doesn't work, I'd be looking at a drive replacement.

So my first question is... will a SuperDrive from a PowerMac G5 fit?

Second question, if not, will any other readily available DVD drive fit? Or does it have to be a specific iMac drive?

We have a few redundant PowerMac G5's at work that are about to get scrapped, most of which are missing loads of components or have fried processors... but they've all got SuperDrives which, as far as I know, are perfectly fine.

I've look at a few guides to crack open the iMac G4 and it looks like it can be a right pain to do, so wanted to make sure that when I do it, I do it right.

Depending on what happens, I may not even bother. If I can rebuild it using target disk mode, I may not even bother replacing the drive as I'm not sure I'd ever use it... but I don't like knowing something isn't working.

Cheers,
Mike

Thanks.

So I take it there are no worries about the physical size of the drive? I seem to remember the drive in the PowerMac being relatively long compared to those I've seen fitted into the small form factor desktop PC's we use. I haven't opened up an iMac myself, so don't know how tight it is space wise.

I don't know why I thought they were long ones. I've just been out to salvage them from the machines and they're perfectly normal sized drives Must just be my eyes.

Thanks for your help. I'll test these drives in my G5 first, then give it a go at the weekend I think