using external drive with iMac

[whitenoise]

Hey there.

Even though I've had OS X for a while now, but this made me stop and wonder, I haven't setup a huge amount on my mac, and this is my first - "okay, how the hell do you do this on a mac" moment.

I have a HP DVD640e external drive and I was wanting to use it to save my iMacs drive the burden of ripping my cd collection.

Can I get this model to work on the iMac? There doesn't seem to be any support for OS X drivers on the HP site as far as I can see....

thanks for your help.

 

[tersono]

Plug it in, see if it works. If the iMac recognises it, you're in business. If it doesn't, you ain't

 

[whitenoise]

Ahhh, well that seems easy enough.

So probably bad news then. I plugged it in (USB) and turn it on, nothing....I don't imagine. Trying the FireWire will make a difference, or even restarting the machine with it turned on? No harm in trying though.

Just started ripping with XLD, looks like I'm going to have to use bootcamp and EAC, if I want to make use of the drive.

 

[whitenoise]

-----UPDATE------

I tried the drive using the FW port and nothing happened. I thought I would put in a cd and see if anything happened.....one Audio CD listed!! I haven't tried it with the usb yet, but I suppose it could work as well. I'm used to windows popping up a New Hardware Found dialogue and thought it would be similar on the mac. It never clicked that the drive wouldn't be listed unless there was a disc.

And with that out of the way.....

"If" I leave the drive connected via FW, I also have a WD HD and a Apogee duet to connect. The Duet will have to be the last in the chain, but is there a "best" way to connect these?

Is there a chance that the HD going to interfere with the ripping? Should I just revert to usb?