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| Replacing IDE HDD with optical drive on Performa 6320CD |
Posted by: carian on 2026-02-11 07:28:16
Hi,
I have a broken CD-ROM drive on my Performa 6200/75 and it's hard to find SCSI optical drives. I have a BlueSCSI and it works at SCSI CD-ROM port or externally just fine. I wonder if it is possible to replace IDE HDD with a generic IDE CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
Thank you. |
Posted by: Phipli on 2026-02-11 08:10:42
Hi,
I have a broken CD-ROM drive on my Performa 6200/75 and it's hard to find SCSI optical drives. I have a BlueSCSI and it works at SCSI CD-ROM port or externally just fine. I wonder if it is possible to replace IDE HDD with a generic IDE CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
Thank you. It will be tricky. The hard disk is 3.5" wide, a CD drive is 5" wide.
You might be able to re-route the IDE cable over to the optical bay with an extension, but you'd have to remove the existing blade push connectors and possibly create a new back stop. |
Posted by: Realitystorm on 2026-02-11 13:10:18
What about a ZuluIDE? |
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-02-11 16:26:03
IDE was a barely just kinda compliant abomination in that series. It supported only a single HDD and I'd be very surprised if it's possible to interface with an Optical Drive. |
Posted by: finkmac on 2026-02-11 18:33:22
What about a ZuluIDE? at that point, might as well just use a zulu-compatible scsi emulator for the cdrom
i assume the OP wants a physically working cdrom though |
Posted by: carian on 2026-02-11 19:40:44
BlueSCSI can emulate HDDs as well as optical drives but I want to use real drive with extension cord in CD-ROM drive bay. I'd like to know if it's possible with installing an appropriate driver. |
Posted by: finkmac on 2026-02-11 21:03:57
give it a try, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work. |
Posted by: croissantking on 2026-02-12 01:05:45
I'd like to know if it's possible with installing an appropriate driver.
I don’t think anyone has tried this, you will have to experiment. As has been mentioned, the implementation of IDE on these Macs is very primitive and possibly non-compliant in a number of ways.
Getting the cabling over to the 5.25” bay will be a big challenge, as has already been stated. |
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-02-12 08:34:31
Getting the cabling over to the 5.25” bay will be a big challenge, as has already been stated. Indeed, but just checked the length of the IDE cable. It can easily reach an optical sitting in front of the HDD bay as can the power cable. Drive may be upside down, but ready for testing with the CD inserted via power cable only hookup before IDE cable is installed. 😉 |
Posted by: croissantking on 2026-02-13 09:26:02
Indeed, but just checked the length of the IDE cable. It can easily reach an optical sitting in front of the HDD bay as can the power cable. Drive may be upside down, but ready for testing with the CD inserted via power cable only hookup before IDE cable is installed. 😉 If the Mac is turned upside down, the CD will be the right way up... Et voila. |
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-02-13 12:02:11
If the Mac is turned upside down, the CD will be the right way up... Et voila. erm . . . the cooling fan exhausts out the lid. |
Posted by: mikes-macs on 2026-02-13 15:21:40
Should be easy enough to re-route the exhaust. LOL |
Posted by: Phipli on 2026-02-13 15:31:54
erm . . . the cooling fan exhausts out the lid. Should be easy enough to re-route the exhaust. LOL Or just space it off the surface? Nothing you couldn't fix with a book - the vents are near the rear of the case. |
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-02-13 18:52:46
Thought about that, but a pithy comment is hard to resist.😉 Don't remember if the cable's long enough to stretch that far, FDD offset and all. But a paperback of appropriate thickness under the Optical would work as well. |
Posted by: carian on 2026-02-13 19:59:48
I have several old drives lying around and tried all of them, no luck. None detected. Must be ROM level hardware limitation. Probably the machine looks for HDD, not an optical drive on that port. I'm not an expert but I think a modified ROM or device driver is needed. |
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-02-13 21:04:38
I doubt you will ever get an Optical drive or any device other than a single IDE drive to be addressed on that cable. It's not a simple ROM limitation, much lower level in the hardware. It's an abomination in terms of a somewhat/kinda/sorta sub-standard implementation of the IDE spec. Apple again, go figure!
So it goes . . . |
Posted by: robin-fo on 2026-02-14 00:37:53
Aren‘t those CD-ROM drives ATAPI? So probably not supported by a plain ATA controller… |
Posted by: Phipli on 2026-02-14 00:39:47
It's an abomination in terms of a somewhat/kinda/sorta sub-standard implementation of the IDE spec. Apple again, go figure! It does what was needed of it - it's more compatible with compact flash cards than the bought in chips in the beige and B&W G3s.
Despite all the fuss people make about it I've never had it not work with a disk I've tried.
plain ATA controller… More than that - I think it is IDE only, not ATA, whatever that means.
Edit : Apparently ATA is the bus standard, so this likely means Apple had a non-compliant design that did as much as they needed to work with their IDE disks, but not enough to be called "ATA". |
Posted by: François on 2026-02-14 05:52:28
But for CD-ROM drives you need the IDE bus to be ATAPI compliant.
Quoting Wikipedia:
ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) is a protocol used with the Parallel ATA (IDE) and Serial ATA standards so that a greater variety of devices can be connected to a computer than with the ATA command set alone. It carries SCSI commands and responses through the ATA interface. |
Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-02-14 07:46:58
It does what was needed of it . . .
Despite all the fuss people make about it I've never had it not work with a disk I've tried , , , Exactly, no complaints about the switch to IDE in the Quadra 630/PB190 and up at all. The switch was even earlier. High end BlackBirds, employing an interstitial adapter for higher capacity IDE drives.
. . . Apple had a non-compliant design that did as much as they needed to work with their IDE disks, but not enough to be called "ATA". Exactly what I said "It's an abomination in terms of a somewhat/kinda/sorta sub-standard implementation of the IDE spec."
The switch from SCSI to IDE mass storage was one of the better moves by Apple despite LEMlike lore about the drives being cheaper and slower than SCSI drives. It wasn't, it was at least as fast and a member here or maybe on TD did benchmarking, finding it equal to or a tad faster than the Apple's SCSI implementation. |
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