DVD Burner for Macintosh?

[Fred Weiss]

I have an older iMac running System 9.1 that we keep around for our very infrequent clipart publishing needs. It currently has a LaCie external CD burner hooked to the iMac's USB 1.0 plug. We also have Roxio Toast software which is about 2 or three upgrades out of date.

My question is ... will any external USB 2.0 DVD drive work with the older USB 1.0 of my iMac or is it just an obsolete doorstop?

[The Vector Doctor]

From what I have read, you can hook up usb2 peripherals to usb1 ports, but they will only run at the slower speed.

You won't see the speed gains of usb2.

[Fred Weiss]

Thank you Eric. That was what I figured but didn't want to buy hoping I was correct. Speed is not an issue since it is just for creating an original master for duplicating in my DVD duplicating machine.

Oddly enough, I made an inquiry at NewEgg.com and got back this less than helpful reply:


Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

Unfortunately we do not provide any advice on the compatibility of the items; neither do we give product recommendations. We are sorry but we do not provide any sort of technical support. Please use Advanced Search (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/AdvancedSearch.asp) to find a more detailed item on our website, or you may also contact manufacturer (http://www2.newegg.com/CustomerService/contactmanufacturer.asp) so that they can further assist you concerning your question regarding the compatibility of particular items. We apologize for being unable to assist you directly at this time.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Thank you.

Anne Yu

[gerald]

They are backwards compatible. Max speed as stated above is limited to usb 1.0. I don't know enough about Macs to know whether there are 2.0 upgrade cards or the limitations of the OS.

[Geary]

As a Mac dude, Fred, I concur that USB 2.0 peripherals will work on the 1.0s. My old iMac is a 333mhz machine and I've used a 2.0 external hd on it. :thumb:

[2NinerNiner2]

Fred - another thing to ensure is that the software for the drive will run under 9.1. As an example, I tried to get my iPod mini to hookup to a friend's older iBook (9.x) and no go; software was for OS-X only :(

[mark in tx]

You should be able to run a USB drive no problem, if compatibility with OS 9 is a problem, depending on the model of that iMac, if it is a slot load, not the tray load, you can put 1 GB of ram in them and run Mac OS 10.4. You have to do a firmware update, but OS 10.4 works fine.

I took a 450 mhz slot loading iMac, swapped in a 700 mhz motherboard, added the ram, an 80 gig hard drive and it runs OS 10.4 like a champ.

Good resource for those older Mac machines

www.lowendmac.com (http://www.lowendmac.com)