What this guy is explaining...is it true?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5108489562&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1
Thanks for your help.>
Anonymous
User login
Please support the defense of Ukraine.
Direct or via Unclutter App
Active forum topics
Recent content
Navigation
No Ads.
No Trackers.
No Social Media.
All Content Locally Hosted.
Built on Free Software.
We have complied with zero government requests for information.
Yes, you can do this... although it is kinda ghetto.
The iMac 350, DV and other CRT models that have slot-loading drives are set up REALLY weird with their IDE devices. The motherboard has a SCSI-looking-but-not-actually-SCSI connector on it, that goes to a 50-pin plug on the laptop-style slot-loading drive (laptop style as in the tiny, skinny drive you'd see in a laptop). After this, 10 of the the wires just DISSAPEAR and the remaining 40 wires are turned into an IDE cable and passed to the IDE hard drive.
This is set-up oddly for a reason. The laptop-style optical drive on an iMac is sent both data and power through the cable- the extra 10 pins simply send a power source to the drive's adapter board. After this, the continuing IDE signal is sent to the hard drive. Such a cable is made using a standard 50-pin SCSI cable cut up and modified with an IDE plug at the end. If you CD drive dies, you *COULD* use this cable to run a generic CD-ROM, but you'd have the leave the bottom of your iMac open on the table, and even then you'd need to find a way to power said CD-ROM.
These cables are more useful for someone who is doing a case-mod to make their iMac into a tower computer and wants to use a real 5.25" CD-ROM drive from a PC... kind of a cool idea, but this guy markets it in an odd fashion.
Thank you for the very informative reply. I appreciate it!
MaxTek
A few months back, I went to CompUSA and bought a standard IDE cable with two ports. I replaced the IDE connector for my hard drive. I ran the cable outside of the case and hooked up two IDE hard drives. Everything worked fine.
Is this guy saying that his cable plugs into the CD IDE slot, or what. I am confused...
--DDTM
The motherboard and IDE layout of the "Slot-loading" iMacs is completely different compared to the "tray-loading" ones.
--Peace
gotcha