# Fellow Mac users, hear my cry...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-mac-users-hear-my-cry/27291>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 29, 2000, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-mac-users-hear-my-cry/27291 "2000-07-29T01:12:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tiggeril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggeril/32/7234_2.png) [@tiggeril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiggeril)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2000, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-mac-users-hear-my-cry/27291/1 "2000-07-29T01:12:34Z")

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OK… I have one of the first-generation PowerMac G4s… can I write to CD-Rs using the DVD-RAM drive? I e-mailed Apple, but I know it’ll take days to get a form reply. Can any of my fellow Dopers help me out here? I’m trying to burn some music CDs by converting my MP3s

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**Author:** ![tiggeril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggeril/32/7234_2.png) [@tiggeril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiggeril)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2000, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-mac-users-hear-my-cry/27291/2 "2000-07-29T01:13:49Z")

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Oh, yeah, I forgot… do I need special writing software, or can I just drag-n-drop audio files onto the disc?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-mac-users-hear-my-cry/27291/3 "2000-07-29T02:08:38Z")

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Short answer: Nope

Long answer: DVD-RAM drives will write DVD, but not CDR, as the writing laser is vastly different for some reason. This is, of course, entirely based on heresay; I actually have no clue, since I am stuck with my own G4 that does NOT have a DVD-RAM drive 🙂

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**Author:** ![Fillet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Fillet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fillet)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2000, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-mac-users-hear-my-cry/27291/4 "2000-07-29T02:09:27Z")

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the DVD-RAM drive can only write to DVD-RAM disks, not CD-R or CD-RW. With the proper disk, it sounds as though you don’t need any special software (just drag and drop); the help menu should walk you through the process of initializing the disk.

Here’s all the info in a nutshell: [http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n60235](http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n60235)