Seventhfury Studios Blog

This is a continuation of the post entitled “Mac Issues, Part 1: Upgrading to Leopard After Drive Failures“.

I went to Best Buy and picked up a Pioneer 20x Internal Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive after reading recommendations for a similar model as being compatible with a G4. I was running out of steam at this point, but I made time to install the drive and plugged everything back in. 

The install went smooth, initially. After my computer was back up and running, I went to test the drive to see if it was working, afraid it might not be and that I may be facing a bigger issue. Upon hitting the Eject button, I heard a sound but the tray wouldn’t come out. I pushed Eject again. Nothing. It was then that I realized that the sound I was hearing was actually the drive tray trying to come out, but it was being blocked by the rounded edges of the drive slot on the case of my G4. Okay, so how was I going to fix that issue? If the tray of the optical drive was too large to come through, I would either have to modify it or drive all the way back to the store and pick a different drive. All the way back. 3 whole miles. What did I do? I modded it, of course.

I found a page that spoke about removing the lip of the tray on the drive so that the tray would fit through the drive door on the G4, so I thought I would try that. At that point in the day I was getting so frustrated that I no longer cared about the warranty of the drive, or the fact that if I ruined it I would be out sixty bucks. I was desperate for a solution, and I was going to figure it out no matter the cost.

For about half an hour I cautiously examined the drive, trying to find ways to remove the tray’s lip without breaking the drive or causing any damage to it. After that half hour I decided to have some fun, so I stuck my flathead screwdriver in and under the lip of the tray and tore it out. I was impressed when I finished the install and booted up to find that the optical drive worked perfectly, and I continued installing software that I had lost in my hard drive crash. 

I know that there are a few people out there who are still trying to figure out how to do this the dainty way, and I’m just posting about this so those people know not to be afraid. Bust that lip off and move on with your life. 

Here are photos from my experience:

 

 

 

 

Be sure to read the conclusion to this epic saga, Mac Issues, Part 3: Mail Issues Upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.