Removing the 'big face' from a Sony Dru-500a drive

[Guy Gadbois]

HELP!... Has anyone tried to remove that gawdy silver front 'faceplate' on the 500a? I'm trying to get it to fit into a G4 Mac and because of the oversized face, it won't eject the tray (The G4 has an oval bezel on the case, and the oversized face won't fit thru there).

I'm hoping that it somehow snaps off, but was hoping to get some input from anyone who's already been down this road.

Thanks in advance.

[Guy Gadbois]

I figured it out! In case anyone is wondering about this, its so easy, now that I really looked at it . The silver face simply slides up to be removed. You may have to slightly (very little effort required) pull the lower lip 'out' so that you can then slide the whole face up and off. Now I bet it will fit in the Mac!

[fourthquark]

Is there a regular faceplate behind the gaudy facepalte, or does this leave the tray exposed at the front??

[Guy Gadbois]

Unfortunately, it does not have a 'standard' looking faceplate behind it. I guess you could say it leaves "the tray exposed". That doesn't really worry me, because it will go in a G4 that has those nice mirrorred doors on them, so the drive it completely hidden except when the tray is ejected.

Honestly, it doesn't look that bad with the faceplate removed, just not like most drives you see out there. It is very easy to remove and put back on if you decide you don't like it.

[SaSi]

The semi-transparent silverish cover (which apart from causing your aparent problems is of very questionable taste to me), can be removed from the back cover. I tried to do this, and saw it is attached by two plastic rods that slide to the back cover (which looks like a normal CD/DVD-ROM cover).

The problem is that removing it leaves two holes.