Convert External DVD-RAM drive to External 1394 Hard Drive...???

bluesignsbluesigns
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
i'm just kind of thinking out loud right now but...



i have an APSTECH external 1394 DVD-RAM drive. it's still brand new. i bought it before the superdrive hit the market [and my desktop] so i've never used it. it kills me to look at this thing cause it cost a fortune and is worth not so much now. i want to get some use out of it.





i'm considering how much of a pain in the ass it would be to convert it to an external harddrive - basically remove the DVD-RAM from the enclosure and replace it with a harddrive.





i believe the DVD-RAM drive thats in it is a Hitachi IDE/EIDE mechanism. it may be a GF-2000 if my notes are correct.



i've never used a firewire enclosure to make my own harddrive. i'm assuming i would have to stick with an IDE/EIDEdrive and then whats the deal with getting the drivers to work.



i would appreciate some input.

if the end product would be sketchy at best - i won't do it. if it's going to take a ridiculous amount of time to do - i won't do it.



DVD-RAM media costs never came down enough for me to commit to the medium. blah blah blah



i suppose i could keep it as an external companion to my powerbook if i have to.



the thing that burns me is that i'm in need of both a large format backup system and a large harddrive right now and this thing doesn't feel like either.



so it comes down to a few things:

should i or shouldn't i?

regardless of the "shoulds" what is the technical proceedure for doing such a transplant?

is anyone seeing a possibility here that i am not?



tia

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Well...



    I tried something like that before... with a CDRW and an old harddrive. In the end it did not work because the enclosure's firmware still told the computer it was a CDRW. The hard drive spun up but I was too chicken to see what it would do if I tried to "burn" anything.



    Try it and see... think of it like a fun project. I think it would not work but it is worth a shot.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Well my brother managed to convert an external USB CDRW drive to an external USB hard drive. The main problem was that the hard drive he used was damaged so about 1/4 of the sectors were unusable. It can't be used by PCs because Windows simply says that there are too many damaged sectors. When used on a Mac, though, the hard drive just gets smaller to reflect the lower number of usable sectors. It's a 2 GB drive but only about 1.5 GB shows up (less that normal, even taking formatting into account).



    At one point he had the hard drive connected to the IDE-USB bridge inside the USB case, and the USB cable going to his PowerMac G3... and the power was coming from his PC's internal power supply. Funny to see cables hanging out of the PC and going through the enclosure to his G3.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
    Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.



    Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.



    Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    bluesignsbluesigns Posts: 315member
    Quote:

    Not hard at all. My original DVD-RAM that came with a DP500 is in an external FW case right now and a fast CD-RW is sitting internally. Just get the APS Pyro case, the directions will show you all you need to do to initialize it as a optical case vice hard drive.





    the case that i would be using is the case the DVD-RAM drive came in from APS tech.





    so maybe you could post a link to these "directions":

    Quote:

    the directions will show you all you need to do





    can i just yank out the DVD-RAM and shove in an IDE/EIDE drive and plug in the firewire cable and should work?
  • Reply 5 of 5
    bluesignsbluesigns Posts: 315member
    so i called the guys at APS and asked some questions.



    the guy said just stick a drive in it and it should work.





    so now i need the biggest , cheapest , most reliable IDE/EIDE compatible hard drive i can find.



    preferably something north of 100GB

    and south of 100$.





    i'm looking at this:



    http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...nal&tabtype=rb



    what do you think?
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