New optical drive in 7-year-old PPC Mac: SATA is not SATA anymore.

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Level 2

191 points

New optical drive in 7-year-old PPC Mac: SATA is not SATA anymore.

I am trying to replace the original SATA Superdrive in my Powermac. I got a new, apparently identical SATA DVD/CD drive from Samsung. When I tried to install it, I can't because the SATA interfaces on the new drive do not match the SATA 40-pin ribbon cable and 4-prong power cable of the computer. Can anyone suggest a decent adapter, or am I SOL? Yes, I called Samsung about it. They said "Get an adapter". OK, name one. Any ideas?

G5 2GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 17, 2012 7:44 AM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

239,069 points

Sep 17, 2012 10:42 AM in response to Birck Cox

Hello,

The old ones were not SATA, but PATA/IDE.

SATA->IDE boards...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226024

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119257

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Answer 2

Birck Cox Author

Level 2

191 points

Sep 17, 2012 11:59 AM in response to BDAqua

That should work. I had looked through the offerings for adapters, but since I was convinced I was dealing with two variations on SATA, it was all, predictably, very confusing. So thanks for correcting my assumption and nailing down exactly what I need-a PATA-to-SATA converter. Judging by the descriptions, they should do the trick. Thanks.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,069 points

Sep 17, 2012 12:18 PM in response to Birck Cox

Great news, thanks! 🙂

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