I recently purchased a Mac Pro and am breaking down my old Windows Xp replacement that this is replacing. I kept the nicest of the two DVD Rewritable drives I had in it. I want to put this as a second drive in the Mac Pro. My question, I got drive replacement information off of Apple's web site but this is an addition, not a replacement. This information should still help me a lot but most of all, how do I set the connector in the back? Do I put it to slave/primary, or cable select? Is there anything else I have to do such as when I boot up the Mac Pro or will it simply just recognize it?
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Question about adding a second optical drive in a Mac Pro
- Thread starter markw10
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Welcome to the Mac condition! Set it to master, as I've heard that's the best setting. To open it, hold option+eject, plug it in with the remaining cables in the optical drive bay... that's about it. Nothing needed to recognize it. Tell us if it doesn't work!
Actually, if both optical drives are going to be run off the same cable; One needs to be set as a Master Drive, while the other is a Slave Drive. Which ever one is set to Master, that is the drive that will open with the Eject Key. To open the other, OS X should recignize both drives and create a Eject Menu, this will allow you to select and open the other drive or both.
Yeah, that's what you'd think.
I just read earlier (here) that Darthraige had had problems with his second drive not working, and he was told to set them both to Master, to great effect. Thought I'd pass that idea along.
Yeah, that's what you'd think.
Which in theory, shouldn't work at all. Each IDE bus can only have one master device on it. If you put two master devices on it, unless one reverts to Slave, you get a nasty condition called bus contention. At best, you get unstable results out of both drives... at worst, you fry some chips.
If it worked, odds are the individual might have accidentally put one or both into cable select mode, which should just work.
set both to "cable select"
I believe the correct installation setting is for both drives to be set to "cable select". You should probably verify that the existing original drive is in fact set to "cable select" before adding the second drive.
If you don't want to use "cable select" on both drives, then one drive should be set to "Master" and the other one set to "Slave". Normally the first (primary) drive would be master.
Either method will work, but I think the cable installed in the Mac Pro is configured for cable select to avoid confusion when adding/replacing a drive in that Apple only has to stock/sell one drive configuration and the user doesn't have to do anything special to install in either slot.
-howard
I believe the correct installation setting is for both drives to be set to "cable select". You should probably verify that the existing original drive is in fact set to "cable select" before adding the second drive.
If you don't want to use "cable select" on both drives, then one drive should be set to "Master" and the other one set to "Slave". Normally the first (primary) drive would be master.
Either method will work, but I think the cable installed in the Mac Pro is configured for cable select to avoid confusion when adding/replacing a drive in that Apple only has to stock/sell one drive configuration and the user doesn't have to do anything special to install in either slot.
-howard
Second Optical Installation
I installed my second optical. It was set for "cable select" and it works like a top.
I installed my second optical. It was set for "cable select" and it works like a top.
I'm having a hell of a time getting my second drive to work in my brand new Mac Pro.
I have a thread going on the MacWorld forums, but I'll sum it up here:
(my definition of "works" is that Disk Utility sees it, or that I can hit the eject button with a toothpick when the drive is empty and it will eject, or both preferably)
-Regardless of jumper configuration, the second drive will eject if i hit the eject button with a toothpick/paperclip right when i turn the machine on
-If there's a bootable disk in the second drive, when the machine is booting I can hold the option key down, and the disk in the second drive is selectable
-With both drives set to Cable Select, only the top drive works
-With drives set to Master (upper drive) and slave (lower drive), and the cables plugged in the appropriate order for this, only the top drive works.
-With no cables plugged into the upper drive, and the cables intended for the upper drive plugged into the lower drive, the lower drive works (obviously the upper doesn't)
-With the ATA cable intended for the upper drive, and the power cable intended for the lower drive, both plugged into the lower drive, and nothing plugged into the upper, the lower drive works
-With both the ATA and power cables intended for the lower drive plugged into it, and nothing plugged into the upper drive, the lower drive is recognized by Disk Utility, but the Eject key on the keyboard (either alone or with the option key held down) does nothing but bring the little eject icon up on the screen. However, Toast can eject the drive.
One last point... If the upper drive is left unplugged, and the lower drive is plugged into the cables intended for it (so the plug at the end of the ATA cable, intended for the upper drive, is just hanging there), and the drive is set to Slave, it still works, but as I mentioned just above, the eject key doesn't work, although I can eject it with Toast.
Any ideas?
I don't know if this is kosher, but here's a link to the thread on the MW forums... http://forums.macworld.com/message/632093
-Aran
I have a thread going on the MacWorld forums, but I'll sum it up here:
(my definition of "works" is that Disk Utility sees it, or that I can hit the eject button with a toothpick when the drive is empty and it will eject, or both preferably)
-Regardless of jumper configuration, the second drive will eject if i hit the eject button with a toothpick/paperclip right when i turn the machine on
-If there's a bootable disk in the second drive, when the machine is booting I can hold the option key down, and the disk in the second drive is selectable
-With both drives set to Cable Select, only the top drive works
-With drives set to Master (upper drive) and slave (lower drive), and the cables plugged in the appropriate order for this, only the top drive works.
-With no cables plugged into the upper drive, and the cables intended for the upper drive plugged into the lower drive, the lower drive works (obviously the upper doesn't)
-With the ATA cable intended for the upper drive, and the power cable intended for the lower drive, both plugged into the lower drive, and nothing plugged into the upper, the lower drive works
-With both the ATA and power cables intended for the lower drive plugged into it, and nothing plugged into the upper drive, the lower drive is recognized by Disk Utility, but the Eject key on the keyboard (either alone or with the option key held down) does nothing but bring the little eject icon up on the screen. However, Toast can eject the drive.
One last point... If the upper drive is left unplugged, and the lower drive is plugged into the cables intended for it (so the plug at the end of the ATA cable, intended for the upper drive, is just hanging there), and the drive is set to Slave, it still works, but as I mentioned just above, the eject key doesn't work, although I can eject it with Toast.
Any ideas?
I don't know if this is kosher, but here's a link to the thread on the MW forums... http://forums.macworld.com/message/632093
-Aran