CD-RW options for G3 Powermac?

[adkmom]

Hey there all,

I'm searching for this for a Mac friend. She'd like to get a burner & another friend has offered to upgrade her but says she has to get either an external firewire or USB drive. Firewire- expensive. USB - slow because I'm sure her unit is ver. 1.1, also expensive. IDE internal- CHEAP!

What's the reason for this? He said she could use a regular IDE hard drive (so cheap now) to replace her teeny 10GB (& she's a Photoshop instructor)-- so why can't she use an internal IDE burner? I even suggested that if it's a matter of bays open or something that she should just have him pull & box the current CD-Rom as a backup & install a burner.

Sorry if my Mac ignorance is showing- i just can't get this.

Waiting to be educated,
Mom

 

[FXWizard]

Does your friend already have a CD-ROM drive in the Mac that she wants to switch with a burner? AFAIK the only potential problem might involve not being able to boot from CD should the need arise, but I'm not sure if that's a problem anymore (it's been a while since I've dealt with that issue). If she can buy the internal burner and have the ability to return it for refund if it doesn't work properly, then I can't see the harm in trying.

There's another option that might be cheaper than buying an external burner, depending on price -- buy an external FireWire case and an internal IDE burner separately, stick the burner in the case and there you go. Of course I don't know much cheaper (if at all) it would be compared to buying an external burner that's already assembled, but it might be an alternative to look at.

 

[macgeneral]

Just finished a confab with another Mac consultant on this very issue. What we determined is that the current CD drive in that b/w G3 (yosemite) can be pulled aand an IDE CD burner can be plugged right in with no trouble.

Now we haven't done it yet so...

macgeneral

 

[JonBear]

Yes, a cdrw burner can easily be substituted for the present cdrom in a G3, either the beige or B&W. I have done so myself with the sony 24x8x32 but many others will work fine. I believe Lite On is the fastest, cheapest and most popular at the moment. For detailed recommendations from others who have done this check the cdrw dadabase at

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com

This website by Mike Breeden has many other useful Mac resources. Mike also has a section of detailed instructions and photos for user installation of upgrades.