Imac g3 cd-rom and HDD on singe IDE?

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Level 1

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Imac g3 cd-rom and HDD on singe IDE?

Hiya,

First time Apple User! The Cd-rom on the unit is bad, I have open the casing up and saw that the cd is (SCSI?) Can I install a regular cd-rom and split the power & IDE cable that goes into the HDD to it?? Without damaging anything? Can it be any CD-rom??

Thank you

Message was edited by: Koqui

G3, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, 233mhz

Posted on Dec 24, 2008 8:10 PM

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Answer 1

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Dec 24, 2008 9:39 PM in response to Koqui

The iMac 233's tray-loading optical drive has a laptop form factor, so a standard 5.25" ATAPI drive won't fit. The CD-ROM drive is IDE/ATAPI (not SCSI), and the wider ribbon cable that you've observed carries the additional conductors for power. You'll be better off checking eBay for a used Apple/OEM tray-loading drive, because (beyond the physical compatibility of the drive) third-party drives don't always support booting the computer. An Apple optical drive's ROM chip is programmed to recognize bootable disks and respond to the "C" key for booting purposes. I'd recommend posting future questions in the iMac's Expansion Forum, where you'll receive a lot of informative responses from other iMac users. This Forum primarily deals with the older, pre-G3 Macs.

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