[markw10]

I'm converting my home from Windows to Mac and just sold my Windows laptop to get a MacBook Pro. Within the next couple months I plan to upgrade my Windows Desktop to a Mac Pro.
The Windows desktop I have I plan keep as a secondary computer but it has two internal 250 GB SATA (3.5") Maxtor Hard Drives. I have no use for two hard drives once I do the upgrade so plan to keep one and remove the other. My question:
Can I simply add this to the Mac Pro as a 2nd hard drive for extra data. It wouldn't replace the main hard drive that comes with the Mac Pro. Would this be possible and is this hard to do? I'm relatively new to Mac so don't know if it uses common PC Components.
As well, depending how the hidef war plays out I want to eventually add a HD DVD or Blu-Ray Reader/Burner. Can I in addition to the Superdrive that comes with the Mac Pro add this as a 2nd drive if it's a common off the shelf optical drive?
i know there are some possible changes coming soon to the Mac Pro but I assume this is one thing that won't change between the current and new model.

[macleod]

As far as the hard drives go I believe it depends on the connection type and that is all that matters once it is formatted properly and such. The Mac Pro uses SATA 2 or (3.0 GB/s) connections, so any hard drive that is that connection you should be able to just pop into the Mac Pro and have it work. I believe just plain SATA drives will work as well, because I have seen people with the WD Raptors in the Mac Pro. It sounds like your drive should work just fine but you will need to format it for the Mac Pro. I actually installed a 500 GB Seagate from OWC in mine and I am ordering a 750 GB from NewEgg soon.

I also installed at second optical drive in my Mac Pro. I ordered it from SuperMediaStore and it was just a stock Pioneer DVR-111d I believe. I don't know if the Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drives will work in the Mac Pro yet, sorry.

Both of those installations are really easy and you should be able to do it with relative ease. If you have any problems macsales.com has a bunch of good help videos.

[chris e boy]

yes you can. SATA hdds are platform agnostic. Im using the one out of my old Windows desktop in my Mac Pro.

same goes for optical drives, although in the case of a Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive you would need some software to work with it (ie. Toast 8 to write to them). I would have thought that support for reading is already built into the OS but if not im sure it will be added in time for Leopard (the next release of Mac OS X).