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TICKET ARCHIVE -> CD/DVD drive for powerbook520c

kwng - Jan 25, 2006 - 7:45 am

Hi. I had just acquired a powerbook 520c from ebay which does not have a CD or DVD drive.
It only has floppy drive. I was thinking of buying a scsi CD /DVD drive for it. However, I have a few uncertainties which I hope someone out there who has experience can help me.

Does powerbook 520c with HDI-30 scsi port and with OS system 7.5 support CDRW or DVDRW drive?
I am not sure there is scsi dvdrw in the market
but there is scsi cdrw. I presumed it is easier to get a USB based cdrw or dvdrw drive but I would need an adaptor which allows usb devices to be connected to scsi port.

So far I have found adaptors for HDI-30 to 25 pin scsi but I only found scsi to usb adaptor i.e. cable that allows scsi devices to be connected to sub port (for win based PC I guessed) but not the other way round. Anyone know whether there is such cable i.e. for usb devices to be connected to scsi port?

The final question is about the drivers. Are there drivers to support cdrw or dvdrw drive
for mac 68k (system 7.5)? or perhaps I do not
need drivers if it support plug and play.

TangentIdea - Jan 25, 2006 - 9:23 am

No, your computer is not fast enough to support DVD burning. I suspect that it is nearly impossible to find a CD-RW drive old enough to be compatible with your computer, too.

USB also requires MacOS 8.6 to run. Your computer cannot support it. So, even if you got a USB PCMCIA card, it still wouldn't work.

If you want to burn CDs or DVDs, you really will need to get another computer. Your PowerBook might be a nice companion for doing word processing on the road, but it doesn't have the firepower for burning, sorry.

Hope that helps -- let me know if you have any more questions.

-Ryan

kwng - Jan 25, 2006 - 12:50 pm

Thanks everyone for the advice. In this case, I was just wondering whether there is any scsi DVD ROM or CD ROM (recommendation) for my powerbook 520c as I need CDs to
install softwares. From another perspective, presuming
I would like get an external dvdrw for my PC and probably
hope that it can be used for my powerbook notebook but
not for burning but for reading. Is that possible? It would need a dvdrw that has a mac 68 driver, are there
such dvdrw? Again, I hardly see any scsi dvdrw around,
is there any scsi dvdrw available? If dvd is out, then back to cdrw, can a new scsi cdrw works with powerbook 520c assuming I don't want to use it for burning but for
reading.

Thank you.

TangentIdea - Jan 25, 2006 - 2:01 pm

You may be able to find an old SCSI CD-ROM drive on eBay, but there is nothing that you can purchase from a retailer anymore that will work with your computer, so I can't give you any good recommendations. First, though, make sure that the programs you want to install will work on your computer. It might be a more economical option to connect your PowerBook to another Mac via Ethernet to copy programs.

-Ryan

kwng - Jan 25, 2006 - 9:51 pm

Thanks again. Unfortunately, this is my first mac and new to mac. I just purchased through ebay an AAUI to RJ45 transceiver but have not received it yet. I was hoping I accessed internet via windows based PC. Is that possible?
Currently I have setup a home network of 3 windows based PCs where one of them is a server which is connected to the internet and to a hub. 2 other PCs are connected to the hub and can accessed internet via the server. I intend to add my powerbook 520c to the hub connection but I am not sure whether it will work? Any suggestions?

TangentIdea - Jan 25, 2006 - 9:56 pm

It could work, theoretically. Keep in mind that this computer is 12 years old, and will not be able to handle hardly any web pages anymore. Mail should be okay, though.

-Ryan