The removable-media drives are connected by way of an EIDE (ATA-3) interface.
The optical drive and Zip drive, when installed, occupy both device locations on the IDE channel. The devices operate in an IDE Device 0/1 configuration. The optical drive is Device 0 (master), and the Zip drive is Device 1 (slave). If the Zip drive is not factory installed in the system, a power and data cable is available for adding a Zip drive to the EIDE bus in the Zip drive bay. The device must be device-select jumpered as Device 1 (slave).
The EIDE bus supports PIO Mode 4 and DMA Mode 2 data transfers.
Some configurations of the Power Mac G4 computer have a SuperDrive (combination DVD-R and CD-RW drive). The SuperDrive has a tray for loading the disc.
The SuperDrive can read and write DVD media and CD media, as shown in Table 3-5. The DVD-R/CD-RW drive also provides DVD-Video playback with DVD MPEG2 decode.
| Media type | Reading speed | Writing speed |
| DVD-R | 4x (CAV) | 2x (CAV) |
| CD-R | 16x (CAV) | 12x (CLV) |
| CD-RW | 16x (CAV) | 4x (CLV) |
| CD or CD-ROM | 24x | – |
Digital audio signals from the SuperDrive can be played through the sound outputs under the control of the Sound Manager.
The SuperDrive is an ATAPI drive and is device-select jumpered as Device 0 (master) in an ATA Device 0/1 configuration.
Some configurations of the Power Mac G4 computer have an internal CD-RW drive. The drive has a tray for loading the disc.
The drive can read CD and CD-ROM media and read and write CD-R and CD-RW media, as shown in Table 3-6.
| Media type | Reading speed | Writing speed |
| CD-R | 32x | 24x |
| CD-RW | 32x | 10x |
| CD or CD-ROM | 32x | – |
Digital audio signals from the CD-RW drive can be played through the sound outputs under the control of the Sound Manager.
The CD-RW drive is an ATAPI drive and is device-select jumpered as Device 0 (master) in an ATA Device 0/1 configuration.
A combination DVD-ROM and CD-RW drive is available as an option. The drive has a tray for loading the disc.
The drive can read DVD media and read and write CD media, as shown in Table 3-7. The DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive also provides DVD-Video playback with DVD MPEG2 decode.
| Media type | Reading speed | Writing speed |
| DVD-ROM | 8x (CAV) | – |
| CD-R | 32x (CAV) | 12x (CLV) |
| CD-RW | 20x (CAV) | 8x (CLV) |
| CD or CD-ROM | 32x (CAV) | – |
Digital audio signals from the DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive can be played through the sound outputs under the control of the Sound Manager.
As an option, the Power Mac G4 can have an internal Iomega 250 MB Zip drive. It is an ATAPI drive connected as device 1 in an IDE Device 0/1 configuration on the IDE channel of the main logic board. If the Zip drive option is not installed at the time of purchase, data and power connectors are provided to add an ATAPI Zip drive to the system. The device should be device-select jumpered as device 1 (slave).