William Salit

Q: Older Mac Pro (1,1 from 2008) incompatible with newer DVD drives?

I have an older Mac Pro (1,1 from 2008) with a dead DVD drive. I've tried attaching several new externals, but none are recognized. Is the computer incompatible with newer DVD drives?

Mac Pro (Early 2009), iOS 8.4.1

Posted on Sep 8, 2015 10:40 AM

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Q: Older Mac Pro (1,1 from 2008) incompatible with newer DVD drives?

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  • by lllaass,Helpful

    lllaass lllaass Sep 10, 2015 12:51 PM in response to William Salit
    Level 10 (187,938 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 10, 2015 12:51 PM in response to William Salit

    What external ones did you try? Where they powered by the USB bus? Those do not always work since the USB ports on old computers do not supply enough power with a single USB port..

  • by Johnb-one,Helpful

    Johnb-one Johnb-one Sep 10, 2015 12:52 PM in response to William Salit
    Level 4 (1,879 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 10, 2015 12:52 PM in response to William Salit

    yes, what IIIaas said. older computers may not give you enough "juice" to get the job done, especially plugged into a hub, keyboard,  etc. Also Apple's external dvd drive meant for the Macbook Air etc, will Not work with a mac pro---without a hack (which I can't remember at the moment). if memory serves me, those dvd drives are ATAPI/IDE, which are getting pretty hard to find.  However, you can replace them yourself, which I know is off-topic.  You can buy a sata dvd drive, plus an atapi/sata bridge which fits onto the back of the dvd drive itself, and then install the whole thing into your Mac Pro.  all you'd need is a small Phillips screwdriver and a little time

     

    oh well

     

    John b

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 9, 2015 9:34 AM in response to Johnb-one
    Level 9 (60,692 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 9, 2015 9:34 AM in response to Johnb-one

    Johnb-one--

     

    Your response above contains some excellent and on-point information. But it jumbles two topics. Separate paragraphs should be used to separate the two topics.

     

    External drives with a USB interface should be discussed in the first paragraph, and Internal drives with an IDE/ATA interface should get its own paragraph.

     

    A paragraph generally starts with a topic sentence. Every following sentence supports the topic. When a new thought occurs that does not support the original Topic sentence, it gets its own paragraph, and sentences that support the new topic.

  • by William Salit,

    William Salit William Salit Sep 10, 2015 12:53 PM in response to William Salit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 10, 2015 12:53 PM in response to William Salit

    Thanks for the thoughtful replies. They seemed right on target. And thanks, Grant, for the lesson in composition, too!