hi there all
can i replace a cdr drive in an external firewire box (freecom) with a dvdr drive or HD? with these external boxes how dows the OS (winXP) recognise the device?
michel

you should be able to connect any IDE device to the unit as long as the connection to the PC supports it. For Example to use a DVD-RW you'd need Firewire or USB 2.0 because they can transport the correct amount of data needed. Where as a standard CD-rom or IDE hard disc will use USB 1.1, 2.0 and firewire.

I built myself an external firewire enclosure for my old Pioneer 103 dvd-rw so I could connect it to my Power Mac and that worked fine. Also works good in XP and doesn't need drivers to detect and use it.

cough cough
he said firewire..
Yes u can

built yourself? can you throw a few tips on how to do it and estimate cost?
cheers
michel

since I already had the dvd-writer it didn't cost me all that much. I bought a firewire 5.25 external enclosure for about £20 from ebay just go and search for "firewire enclosure" and you'll get loads of items up.

Then it was just a matter of opening the enclosure up connecting the power and the internal IDE connector and thats it. The enclosure I purchased included firewire cables and power adapter so basically £20 is all it took.

sorry my answer earlier was a bit missleading I wasn't really paying attention to what i was saying.

I purchased the enclosure and added the drive myself but I did look into how much it would be to convert an old USB 1.1 enclosure to firewire, sinc I had a firewire 3.5 enclosure also that I wasn't using at the time.

I found a few articles with a google search telling of people who actually physically made they're own enclosures but it was all too complicated and i'd rather get a 1 year guarantee for the enclosure and warranty over my writer by purchasing an new one.