I have a dvd drive from a G5 power PC that I hoped to put into the 2nd dvd drive bay on an early Mac Pro. I was surprised to see that it doesn't quite fit; some screws are in different locations. Is there any reason why this drive would be incompatible other than a couple of screw heads being in the way?
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Are the screw heads covering the the mounting holes?
There are manuals that explain how to mount 'user replaceable parts' like this one…
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA919/en_US/Mac_Pro_Early2009_Optical_Dr ive_DIY.pdf
Find the one for your models & double check that the screws are not incorrectly placed, there is often a few holes that can be used for the mounting, did you remove the drive, or has someone else supplied it with the old mounting screws left in place?
I have done a similar thing with a G5 DVD & a Mac Pro, so it should be possible (unless Apple did something weird in another model).
Thanks for your response. The mounting holes are not the same and there are screw heads that stick out enough that keep it from sliding into the dvd bracket. It's vexing to have to discard a perfectly functional dvd unit just because they decided to change the holes - unless there's some other reason it's incompatible. I guess I was wondering if I could somehow jerry-rig to fit. The electrical connectors look the same.
I know the G5 used special mounting screws for the HDs: did it use the same ones for the optical drive? If it did, can't you just remove them?
Are these quite chunky black screws that stick out like they slide into a rail on the bottom?
See page 54 59 of this manual…
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA560/en_US/PowerMacG5_UserGuide.pdf
Those are just mounting screws, they can be removed. Otherwise I would take out the screws & see if the case appears to come apart, in fact I'd open the case up & see if these screws appear to attach to anything critical 🙂. This drive quite old now & faster, compatible drives are pretty cheap so you don't have too much to lose.
Not sure what Mac Pro he has, but it's possible that he needs an ATA optical drive, which would limit him to a used drive, I think.
Thanks for your suggestions; I don't have time today but I will take both apart again and double check all these factors.
install G5 optical drive into early Mac Pro
