2nd Optical in Mac Pro

Mac
#1

G’day,

Just plugged in my new Pioneer BluRay player into the 2nd (lower) optical bay in my MacPro5,1, expecting some Mac plug ’ n ’ play simplicity…

Started the computer up, and first had to work out - how do you eject the 2nd drive! :slight_smile: Option/Alt + Eject key. Ok. Except - it didn’t do anything. Further reading told me about the “eject” menu item - which WAS now present in my menubar, but it only listed the original top drive.

About this Mac / Report / Disc Burning / just sat and spun with no information, had to force quit.

Disk Utility was no better - had to force quit, and it wouldn’t load any drive info.

Terminal, when asked to list all optical drives, also went non responsive.

I have just opened the computer back up, disconnected both drives, then connected only the new drive, using the “top” cables - and it works fine. Computer can see it, and it is functioning.

So - why wouldn’t they work together?

I didn’t think that Macs bought into the drive Master/slave relationship crap, but a bit of googling suggested that this could be the issue??

The new drive has no jumpers visible. Haven’t looked on the old Apple Superdrive…

Ultimately it’s not a big concern - I am likely going to remove the old Superdrive as it sounds like a B52 bomber with emphysema… but my other option is to stick another hdd in there, so I’d still like to work the solution…

Cheers & thanks everyone - it’s really great having a place to come to with these issues.

cosmic

#2

More google suggests the master slave thing is a thing and that Apple SuperDrive come set to function in either position but a non Apple device would likely ship as Master… so I’ll try swapping them fully around and see if that works.

#3

I put my BD player in and it automatically gave me two options in the upper right hand corner in the global menu bar.

#4

I had some problems with this when I had my Mac Pro, turns out there are some known issues, see:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4807631
and

#5

The swap has done the trick. Both drives now recognised, with the BluRay in the upper bay, and Superdrive moved down to the lower. I’m guessing what I read about Apple’s drives being able to go top or bottom was the answer - the BluRay drive had to be in the Master position.

Either that, or… maybe the Gods were just f’ing with me. :slight_smile:

Fingers crossed there wont be any other issues! :slight_smile: (Til I want to pop a HDD in there… but I’ll need a new bracket for that first…)

2 Likes
#6

At one stage I had a SSD in the second spot, held in by double sided Velcro

#7

I got a Multi-Mount from OWC for 2nd bay SSD goodness.

#8

Regardless of whether you are using a Linux, Mac or Windows PC (and a Mac is a type of PC these days running a standard motherboard configuration) you have to set the master/slave configuration with ATA drives. SATA drives on the other hand shouldn’t need this configuration.

I’m guessing you’re using ATA drives otherwie you wouldn’t have this configuration problem with SATA drives.

#9

After upgrading to Sierra, the new drive has again disappeared - yet the “eject” icon is in the menu bar… (with just 1 option - Superdrive, not Panasonic BluRay…)

Disk Utility can see the Panasonic, but that’s about it. Oddly - it’s not showing the Superdrive.

System Report shows the Superdrive, but no Panasonic.

Guess I’ll try remove the Superdrive from the equation to see if that makes any difference…

#10

I disconnected the original Super Drive - leaving the new Panasonic BluRay Drive in the upper bay (with upper bay’s cable connected).

Plug everything back in, turn it on, and - drive recognised by the OS - now listed in the “eject” menu.

Open handbrake to rip a disc - it sees the disk, but sees nothing to rip. (Ah - need libdvdcss) Quickly try VLC just to try play a disc, but VLC hangs… Restart the computer - No optical drive recognised. Restart again… same.

Have I got a dud drive? Or - ?

Thanks

cosmic

A shut down, instead of a restart, has fixed it for now…

Nope - gone again.

Just read a discussion on MacRumors about ‘my’ drive going to sleep, and not waking back up. Have un-ticked the “put drives to sleep” box in Energy Settings… See if that does anything.

Next day… new disk… still working, no hassles. So I just have to leave my hard drives running 24/7…