New secondary optical drive not showing in system profiler

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Level 1

4 points

New secondary optical drive not showing in system profiler

Hi, I own a PowerMac G4 and still use it for quite a few tasks. One of those tasks requires burning files to DVDs. I recently decided to install another DVD drive capable of burning discs in the second slot. When I start MacOS (10.4) and check system profiler, only the first disc drive is addressed. I then ejected the new, second drive by using a small screwdriver to hit the button, placed in a DVD, and nothing happened.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jul 20, 2024 9:41 AM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

62,228 points

Jul 23, 2024 12:40 PM in response to ashy_p

IIRC, the G4's used IDE drives which must have the IDE jumpers properly configured. If the original optical drive was using Cable Select (CS), then the secondary drive must also use CS. If the original drive was configured for Master, then the 2nd one needs to be configured as Slave.

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Answer 2

ashy_p Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 30, 2024 9:38 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks for the response, sorry for the late reply! I did try a master & slave jumper setup and it still didn't work, but I haven't tried cable select yet. I did have them daisy chained on the same cable, so could that be a reason? As of right now I have a USB DVD-RW drive connected which seems to work rather well despite the USB 1.1 bottleneck. Thank you for your time!!

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

62,228 points

Jul 31, 2024 6:25 PM in response to ashy_p

You need to check whether the original Apple drive is using the Master/Slave or Cable Select option. Then you need to use the same option on the new drive. When using the Cable Select option it is probably best to place the drive on the last connector (usually black).

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