Tiger on g3 600 ibook

use FW target mode and install from another Mac that does have a DVD drive. Put the iBook into FW target mode (hold "T" key while booting), connect FW cable to other Mac and install onto iBook's HD.

I think you'd be happier though if you slapped at least a combo drive into the iBook though. Combo drives cost maybe $60-$75 and are well worth the bother. Drives are cheap now, heck I just bought a 16x duallayer slotload burner for my TiBook for ~$90.

dan k

Hi Dan (and everyone else),

Any tips on where iBook combo drives can be had for under $100 as Dan says? I'm a pretty experienced shopper but a quick perusal so far turns up units for $189 and up.

(I have a G3/500 model - i.e. the first white/dual USB model, with a tray loader).

TIA for any pointers.

Best,
Matt

Okay, did some more searching here and found the old Dan/NaturGirl thread on cheap, bare replacement drives. Ugh - what a PIA in terms of brands and bezels.

Now to try to find a Matsushita combo drive (my iBook's CD-ROM drive is a Matsushita CR-176).

Matt

Okay, did some more searching here and found the old Dan/NaturGirl thread on cheap, bare replacement drives. Ugh - what a PIA in terms of brands and bezels.

Now to try to find a Matsushita combo drive (my iBook's CD-ROM drive is a Matsushita CR-176).

Matt

zipzoomfly has the Pioneer DVR-K05 8X Dual Layer Slim DVD±RW Drive for $87 with free shipping. I recommend this drive for any PowerBook/iBook (that uses standard formfactor drives, clamshell/Lombard and later.) Heh heh, I said 16x in my post above, I see I really meant 8x . . .

It's a slotload, so bezels aren't really an issue. If you want to of course, you could fab a nice color co-ordinated stick-on slotted plastic face to cover the OE generic face. Don't want a slotloader? Check out the other DVD+/- slim drives scattered among this list.

If $87 blows your budget, look through the combo-drive category for slim drives, example one and example two.

dan k

Thanks for the tip, Dan. Between the physical-fit problem (slot-load vs. my tray-load iBook), and the fact that I don't need DVD-R on my iBook (Not much point, IMHO, in having a DVD-R drive with a 500MHz G3-based machine...), I'll probably go with a combo drive.

BUT, I'm even more intrigued now by using the Pioneer DVD-R drive in another situation. Namely, my iMac G5 (Rev. B, i.e. the last version that's user-serviceable). As you may know, this unit uses a slot-loading slim drive.

It seems to me that this $87 unit would be a perfect swap for that, yes? If so, it'd be a lot cheaper than Other World Computing's $140 Superdrive upgrade for the G5 iMac.

And if it did work, I could always stick the iMac's combo drive in the iBook (albeit with the slot-vs.-tray bezel issue, but hey, in that case the combo drive would be free).

Any thoughts?

Best,
Matt

All modern slim drives share the same formfactor, so it's almost certain the Pioneer drive will work perfectly in an iMac. In fact, IIRC the DVR-K05 is an OE install from Apple for the iMac (and 'Books too.) Just for confirmation, why not pop over to xlr8yourmac and see what their drive upgrade database has to say? A quick search revealed a couple of K05 -> iMac G5 successes.

However . . . the generic faceplate which comes with the new drive probably won't fit on the old iMac drive. That's not an issue if it'd be going into something like a TiBook, which doesn't use an external faceplate, but in the case of an iBook you'd be left with the drive's guts exposed. It'd work mind, but it's not a situation I'd want to have for any length of time.

Edit: I have the leftover/unused face from my Pioneer drive. If you tell me the drive model currently in your iMac, and if I have a similar mechanism around my shop, I'll check to see if the Pioneer face fits the OE iMac combo drive. I did try the Pioneer drive's generic face on the Apple/Matshita UJ-815 SuperDrive I pulled, no go.

dan k