iMac superdrive info

Posted by: zorba on 25 February 2010

I bought the following spec imac late 2008;

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.29f1
Serial Number (system): 748423K8ZE2
Hardware UUID: BC138A71-7AC6-5818-A6BC-1A8276837823

In a haste to erase a dvd disc using Disc Utility I clicked the image of a disc which I thought was the dvd but has now got me thinking that I erased my drive or its driver.

I do still have the following on my imac;

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A:

Firmware Revision: 1AHN
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

It does work as I have since burned a dvd which is when I noticed that the Matsushita info was missing in Disc Utility I now only have Optiarch which was there before too.

I swear that Matsushita was there as I was proud of it but searching Google it is only possible to have one or the other.

Is it possible to look in Time Machine? Is it possible to erase a piece of hardware in this way? Is there a log I can look into to see if it was erased?

Many thanks in advance
Posted on: 25 February 2010 by BigH47
Using disk utility I see the same information as you, regarding optical drive(s).

ie OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5630A
Posted on: 25 February 2010 by winkyincanada
You may have had some redundant drivers for the Matsushita there that were a hang-over from a general OS install. The Disk utility thought it was there, but had perhaps never bothered to really check, until you did something. I take it you have just one physical drive? I'll bet it is the OPTIARC, and that your Matsushita was an illusion all along. Or is there a gaping hole in the side of your iMac from where it escaped to glorious discy, spinny freedom on Discworld (presumably)?
Posted on: 25 February 2010 by garyi
You cannot do what you believe you've done so don't worry.
Posted on: 25 February 2010 by zorba
Originally posted by garyi:

You cannot do what you believe you've done so don't worry.

Thanks garyi, my worry has now gone. Being allowed to do something like that so easily would be quite wrong it would have at least prompted a warning and a user ID to proceed.

Thanks BigH47 for checking.

Thanks winkyincanada in my current state of alarm you got me thinking for a moment - no hole (hahaha). Yes only one drive which is the OPTIARC. You may be right about redundant drivers hung-over from another install as my iMac was a refurbished model purchased from Apple UK.

Thanks all, best forum and the only one I'm a part of.
Posted on: 26 February 2010 by mudwolf
I remember my boss at a Federal job came by the woman I worked with discussing how to remove AutoCAD from the Windows 3.0 machine. Thought we were lazy, but it was a very technical problem. He swaggered in and took over, he clicked the 3 dots and I said that jumps you back a level and I wouldn't do that. He hit delete to prove me wrong.

file names flashed by and after a minute he said that should do it. The files he erased were DOS, there was a flash warning on screen for a second before it went blank. He was wiping out everything on the hard drive.....

Major screw up, and then he got up and walked away. We got the tech up to reload 3.1 but it was billed to the department and boss had been told no more money.


I love Macs, much easier for me to work on.

Tho at the bottom of the apple menu is LOGOUT, my original computer guy said never do that? What happens? Why would they make it so easy to do something strange?
Posted on: 26 February 2010 by garyi
IN the early days of OSX, I wa reading the mac forum as it was then and someone is panicking they deleted their home folder whilst running OSX, consequently the desktop no longer existed and the whole thing crashed.

I replied that you cannot do that its impossible. So I tried it! And sure enough it deleted, causing a major crash because the trash folder exists in the very folder you were trying to put in the trash.

You can;t do it anymore, suffice to say I learned a lesson on that one.