Apple external optical drive not working on macbookpro

I removed my optical drive from my 2011 2.3, macbookpro 13" and added a 2nd hard drive. I have an apple external optical drive(cd/dvd) which I hooked up
via usb and it would not work. I connected the apple external optical drive to my two other mac mini's and it works on both of them. Any reason why the external optical drive would not work on a macbookpro? If anyone has suggestions I would be most greatfull. Thank you in advance.

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External Optical Drive not working with iMac

I have a memorex external drive that I have been using to install Windows 7 with boot camp and have successfully used it on 2 mac-mini's. I am not trying to install Windows 7 boot camp on an iMac that has a broken internal optical drive but the external will not run.
I have tried:
- Startup Utility: Can see the external in there.
- External shows up on desktop with Windows 7
- External shows up in disk utility
- Windows shows up in startup menu with holding down Option.
I see iMac SSD Drive, Recovery HD Drive , Windows CD , EFI Boot cd as options.
If I select Windows it takes me to a black screen that says it doesnt see a boot CD clicking on EFI boot does nothing.
Anyone have any possible solutions into getting this to work?

Valen85 wrote:
I have a memorex external drive that I have been using to install Windows 7 with boot camp and have successfully used it on 2 mac-mini's.
Mac Minis without built-in Optical drives behave differently than iMacs with built-in drives for boot ability,
I am not trying to install Windows 7 boot camp on an iMac that has a broken internal optical drive but the external will not run.
I see iMac SSD Drive, Recovery HD Drive , Windows CD , EFI Boot cd as options.
If I select Windows it takes me to a black screen that says it doesnt see a boot CD clicking on EFI boot does nothing.
This is confusing. If you have the external Optical Drive (Memorex) connected via USB to the iMac and insert a Windows 7+ DVD in it, the Apple Bootmanager will see OSX, Recovery HD, Windows (if already installed on the iMac's internal drive) and possibly Windows and EFI boot from the DVD.
The Windows and EFI Boot will not work if you try to boot the iMac from the external. Test this from the internal Optical drive as well. If your iMac is a UEFI Mac (2013+) it will let you boot from the DVD directly (without Bootcamp).
Bootcamp Assistant will refuse to let you use the external Optical drive, if you try use it to install Windows. BCA only works with internal Optical drives as far as Windows installation is concerned, on Macs that have a built-in optical drive. The exceptions to this rule are 2012 Macs and some 2011 models.

'Apple External Optical Drive' stopped working

I'm trying to install Windows XP on a Macbook Air. I successfully installed the OS using the USB Superdive. I then inserted my Leopard disk and installed Bootcamp 3.0. After the reboot I can no longer use the external drive. When I look in device manager the show that USB device as in error. I have tried reboots, un-installing the device, scanning for hardware changes, etc.
Does any one have a clue how to get the external drive working again within Windows XP on my bootcamp installation?

The error code was 10 as I recall. I'll look again in a minute (re-install boot camp) what I did find was if I uninstalled the Apple 'ODD' driver from the system the drive was immediately available again and worked fine. I was even able to eject the disc. However, I can't insert a new dis in that state. When you try to push the new one in the drive is in a state where it is still 'pushing out' and wont take it. If I reboot I can then use another disc, but again once ejected I can't use it.
I can get my software installed this way I guess, with lots of reboots. But with Apple's driver in place it does not work at all.
Once I get a few programs installed I'll re-apple Apple's driver and see what I end up with.

External optical drive that works?

Hi, I have had an Imac 27 i5, its 3 weeks old now, I did the free Lion os upgrade before realising that Lion seems to be buggy.
I have had problems some of which I have got over thanks to this forum, some I have not I still cant get my isp set-up working but a work-around is giving me service, the wireless connection drops out regularly but using ethernet works. Mail wont send my emails and Itunes is problematic. The bluetooth trackpad, mouse and keyboard disconnects frequently but thankfully reconnects soon after. Neither of my two existing external hard drives or my external optical drive would work on this Imac, I replaced one hard drive and that works now, but tells me that I have 120gb free on a drive that is only 120gb and has a full Time machine backup on it?). I replaced the optical drive with a very cheap one and that works now.
My old optical drive used Llitescribe and I really want to carry on using it with the Imac, Can any of you guys recommend an optical drive with Litescribe that will work with the Imac and os Lion? I am getting tired of having to spend out money replacing things I expected to work with the Mac and dont!
I brought the Imac because I wanted a hassle free computer, I read and took in all the reasons for using Mac over Microsoft and to be hounest with you the Last 3 weeks have nearly driven me to send the Imac back! I expected it to "just work" and be easier to use but it has not turned out that way for me up to now, I have contacted Apple about the problems and they dont seem to be of very much help - up to now, but thanks to you guys and this forum I am getting things sorted, slowly. Apple need to get thier act together I think! What hurts the most is that my 3 year old £600.00. HP PC with windows 7 worked "out of the box" and has "just worked" to this day! I cannot say that about the £1650.00. Imac!

The external Apple superdrives are compatible only with the Macs that did not come with an internal optical drive. Take it back and get a 3rd party drive, preferably one with drawer loading. I have an 2011 iMac and bought this external drive: 24X OWC Mercury Pro. I do a lot of ripping of audiobooks for my iPhone so wanted one with a faster read throughput than USB 2 which is all my iMac has. So I use the FW port on the drive.
OWC is a very well know Mac supplier and has excellent reputation both for item quality and customer support.

Optical drive not working only ejecting DVDs

Hi guys, I have a Macbook Unibody model no MacBook5,1. The thing is a month back the optical drive stopped working. I insert a DVD, its tries to read it for about 15 seconds and ejects it. Now the funny thing is last night i tried playing Dexter on it (great show) and it worked!!! but today i tried playing the same DVD and it does the 15sec eject thing. Now i'm in China, apple care expired about a month ago and i'm looking for a way to fix this with my hands. Any help would be great! Thanks

Buy an external drive.

External DVD drive not working with Lombard G3 333

I have an external DVD drive that worked when I had 10.4, but had to reformat HD and now only have 10.3.9, and now the DVD drive does not work with DVDs, it will work with CDs and CDR media, but not with DVD media. My Lombard did not come with DVD originally and I am using a PC Card (Macintosh PowerBook DVD-Video PC Card For PowerBook G3 Series) and it worked before with 10.4, but not with 10.3, any ideas? Also have tried with 9.x, no go either. Any help would be appreciated.
Also, would it be difficult to add a DVD logic board to my Lombard?
Joey

xamdu,
I am reading and replying to this post after first replying to your other post, so a few of my previous comments are redundant.
Regarding the FireWire(?) USB 2.0(?) DVD drive: It is possible Tiger supported your DVD drive but Panther does not. I would give PatchBurn for Panther a try:
http://patchburn.de/download.html
If the above is unsuccessful, take a look at this workaround:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040330171655882
You can swap logic boards but it does require a lot of disassembly.
Since no version of OSX supports Apple DVD Player, I am assuming you have a third-party player like VLC installed to watch movies. If this is the case, the DVD Decoder PC card is not necessary. If booted to 9.x, you of course will need the decoder PC card but I did not know 9.x's Apple DVD Player supported external drives.

How to load OS if optical drive not working

Hi, I'm just thinking ahead to deal with a possible crisis as sometimes I work in remote areas of Asia. Is the only way to load the complete Mac OS onto a machine via the DVD install disc or via a lengthy download? I'm probably revealing the depth of my ignorance here, - but can you not somehow copy the install disc onto an external drive and load it that way, or does it not work like that?
My current superdrive will no longer burn disks but is still managing to read them, but if this facility too fails when I'm in the middle of nowhere how can I reinstall the OS should this become necessary?
I suppose I could carry an additional external optical drive for this contingency but much easier if its possible from a drive.
A stop-gap measure would be to use a bootable backup of the machine that I have on an external hard drive but that does not solve the whole issue.
thanks
Simon

Hi there, can you explain in more detail how to install Leopard from the disk image of the Leopard install DVD that I got Disk Utility to create please?
With the actual disk you just hold down c and it forces the machine to boot from the disk, I dont understand how to get the machine to boot from the disk image when it is not appearing as a bootable volume. If I click the disk image it gives me the option to restart and begin installation, if I agree to this it restarts the machine but just as normal, from whatever startup disk is already selected - it does not restart from the disk image.
Sorry if I am being dim,
Simon
I have it on a separate volume of an external HD, another volume of this HD contains a bootable SuperDuper backup.

Thunderbolt 2 external hard drive not working with Macbook Pro (early 2011)

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and I hope you guys can help me with this:
I've recently bought an external hard drive that works on Thunderbolt 2 (LaCie d2 3TB). When I connect the new drive to my Macbook Pro through the thunderbolt port, the drive isn't recognized. However, the drive works fine through a USB connection.
I thought that Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 are compatible, however this doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe it's because the OS X / driver / firmware version that I'm working on that is not updated? I work on an early 2011 Macbook Pro: OS X Version 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).
Thank you very much for your help!
Daniel

Hi danielsh6,
I recently bought the new Lacie Thunderbolt 2 D2 3TB and I had the same problem as you, i have a macbook pro early 2011, those support thunderbolt but many times there is a bug that doesn't let you connect any thunderbolt drives to your computer. The solution I found was installing this update:
Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.0
Before doing this I would recommend you updating to mountain lion (not yosemite yet as there is still some glitches and more on preview's macbook pro's).
Hope this helped!
Forest

External Optical drive not reading? Or is it my programs...

Hi,
I currently just got a macbook pro 2011, 15". Two internal drives (120 GB SSD for OS and Programs, 750 GB HDD for Data) & external USB Optical DVD/RW
The issue I'm having is when I insert a real DVD into the external optical drive (which is the orignal from the macbook pro not store bought) it doesmn't read the DVD. I have installed Quicktime, VLC player and everytime the external just gives me the VIDEO AND AUDIO TS folders.. any suggestions in what I need to do so I can play DVD's from my external?
Thanks a lot...

DVD Player requires a properly recognized DVD player to be present in the optical bay in order to play DVDs. You can use VLC, but you will have to do as you're doing. Another option is to edit the DVD playback framework, but I'm not going to post those instructions. You can use Google & do so at your own risk.

When is Apple going to fix the problem with external hard drive not working on Lion?

As for everyone else external hard drive does not work with Lion.
When will Apple fix this problem. Do they just ignore the customer : (

Copy off all your data off the NTFS formatted drive to another drive
Open Disk Utility in the Applications>Utilities folder
Select your external NTFS drive on the far left, should have the drive makers name, a ID perhaps plus the word "media"
Click the Partition Tab, click the big box and click 1 Partition
If you want a Mac only drive > Option: GUID >format OS X Extended (Journaled)
If you want a Mac/PC drive (for over 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format exFAT
If you want a Mac/PC drive (for the most compatibility with other devices, Win XP, but only under 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format MSDOS (FAT or FAT32)
Give it a name and click Apply.
You can also search Microsoft for a free exFAT download if you have Win XP.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

External DVD Drive not working with osx 10.8.5

Hi, I'm having issues with my MacBook Pro 15" 9,1 working with an external DVD drive. I am running OSX 10.8.5 and have been troubleshooting this issue for a few weeks. The optical drive itself is the original drive that came with the computer, but I have put it in an external enclosure to free up space inside the body of the MacBook Pro. The drive seems to function fine with CDs (playing and ripping - haven't tried burning yet) but is extremely inconsistent/barely functional with DVD playback. Only one DVD in my collection properly works - others bring up error messages in multiple programs (VLC, Wondershare, the native DVD application, etc.) and another continuously loops back to the main menu each time "Play Feature" is selected. These are a variety of DVDs that range from obscure to commercial and old to new (the oldest and most obscure is the only one that works). After deciding that it is not the programs, I replaced the enclosure. I still had the same exact issues. I reset PRAM - no solution there. I created a new user on my computer, installed the same media players and had the same luck. I then used the same external drive on my old MacBook Pro 15" (5,4 running OSX 10.6.8) to see if it would work there. It worked perfectly (with the native DVD application). What is going on here and how can I get my new computer to recognize the external DVDs reliably and consistently?

older superdrives were Hitachi mfg, new ones are Panasonic. Since yours is new and panasonic, indications are it wont work thru the enclosure on your NEW macbook, rather as you state on your older Mac.
until you said it worked fine on the old machine, the logical conclusion is a dirty lens on the laser since it reads CDs fine but most DVD not, since the track is much smaller.
Considering a new superdrive is only $48 on ebay ,or $78 for a new superdrive, your frustration might be too much, and just grab a new superdrive.
Your detailed information indicates a firmware incompatibility of the panasonic superdrive thru an enclosure
This is the new superdrive, made by panasonic as you have in your enclosure:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/221280580133?lpid=82
of course thats a lot of trouble buying that AND an enclosure, easier still is just getting a Mac superdrive inside its working enclosure designed for use as such:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive

Optical drive not working since upgrading to Mountain Lion

Backstory:
I ordered a new MacBook Pro with Retina Display after a coworker expressed interest in my current laptop (a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MBP). I had just upgraded the current MBP to Mountain Lion, but decided to sell in order to offset the cost of the new machine.
As I started backing things up last week, I realized that my optical drive had ceased functioning ("The operation can't be completed because you don't have the necessary permission." pops up whenever any optical media, blank or otherwise, is inserted).
I took the computer to the Apple Store, where they kept it overnight. They tried swapping in a new optical drive, but were unable to get the machine to correctly recognize optical media. I was told it was a permissions issue with Mountain Lion. They offered to downgrade the OS for me, but Mountain Lion is one of the selling points (as is "working optical drive"). Now my coworker is a little less eager to buy.
My new MacBook Pro should arrive in the next few days, at which point I'll take my current machine back to the Apple Store. I'll try to get them to do a full OS reinstall and see if they can repair the permissions issue in the process, but I'm not optimistic.
My question is this:
Is it likely a subsequent OS update will address this issue? Or am I simply out of luck?

You paid for a license to use Mountain Lion & that license is forever tied to YOUR Apple ID. You cannot distribute Mountain Lion in any way shape or form. If you were to sell your computer, with Mountain Lion installed, as I've already provided, the new owner will never be able to update or restore OS X, should the need arise. You will have sold the new owner a huge bag of hurt.
Good luck.

External Optical Drive Not Recognized

I've been using a Pioneer DVR111 external firewire drive for the last few months. Until tonight it's performed flawlessly.
I ripped a couple of CDs into iTunes tonight, then when I tried to do another it wouldn't work. The CD wouldn't mount and the drive wasn't recognized by system profiler. I hear the drive spin up when the disc is inserted, but that's about it.
I then tried the disc in the internal drive. Also no response.
So I shut the computer down, unplugged everything and waited a few minutes. I think this is called resetting the PRAM or something like that.
I rebooted from the install disc and rann hardware test. Passed without problem.
I rebooted again and everything seemed fine. Both optical drives were recognized in Profiler.
However, when I inserted a disc in the external drive, it again wasn't recognized. And when I rechecked Profiler, the drive had disappeared. The internal drive, however, seems to have remained okay.
Does anyone have any idea what's going on here? Might this be caused by a faulty external drive, or something else? The external was working fine a couple of hours ago, and I'm a little bit spooked that my internal was acting oddly for a time.
Thanks in advance for the help.
ron
iMac Intel Duo Core Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Can you be more specific about "Arch Linux don't recognized it"?
Post the output of lsusb and dmesg.
Do you have an internal optical drive? If not, what's the output of 'cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info'?

External DVD drive not working

Need some help with this one:
My sister-in-law has an iMac G4 1.25Ghz 17” LCD USB 2.0 with 10.4.11.
The internal DVD-ROM CD-RW died awhile back so she purchased a Sony external DVD-ROM CD-RW USB 2.0 to take its place.
Everything was working fine.
Recently, she had some bad sectors on her HD (5 yrs old anyhow), so I purchased her a new HD, installed it and while I had the case open, I removed the broken internal DVD-ROM CD-RW. Installed a fresh 10.4.11
System profiler can see the USB Sony DVD-ROM CD-RW, but when a disk is installed, or when I open Apple DVD player, it says a disk drive cannot be found.
The DVD can be seen on the desktop.
System prefs is configured to open Apple DVD player when a DVD is inserted.
I hooked the new Sony drive to my setup (iMac G5 2.0) and the drive works fine when I put in a DVD.
Would removing the old broken DVD-ROM drive from the G4 cause the new external USB Sony not to work??
Any suggestion? I checked Sony’s site and there is no d/l’s for the drive.
Thanks,
--Bob Aldridge
Huntsville, AL

Hey Bob,
My understanding of this is that when you install the OS there is like a "shake hands" with the DVD-ROM chip on the internal ATA bus by the installer. The installer then installs/enables the necessary components to play DVDs.
Would removing the old broken DVD-ROM drive from the G4 cause the new external USB Sony not to work??
If you remove that drive that's probably why you get the:
"An installed DVD player cannot be found" error.
I did not re-apply any thermal compound on the heat pipes. Is the compound something I can get a Radio Shack?
Here's the exact procedure from the 1.25 Service Manual:
"This procedure requires the following tools:
• Plastic stylus or plastic spatula to remove the old thermal paste
• Plastic stylus or plastic spatula to spread the thermal paste
• Thermal paste (922-4757)
Part Location
1. Thoroughly clean the original thermal film from the mating surfaces (circled below) of
the bottom housing and thermal pipe. Use a plastic stylus to scrape the surfaces
clean. Note: Do not use an abrasive material or liquid cleaner.
2. Squeeze a ball of thermal paste onto the mating surfaces of the thermal pipe.
3. Replace the bottom housing.
Warning: The bottom housing has four torx screws that must be tightened to at least
17 in.-lbs. Use a torque driver (service tool 076-0899) to ensure that the thermal pipe
is firmly mated with the top base. If you do not have a torque driver, you must make
sure the screws are tightened by hand FIRMLY, BUT NOT FORCIBLY.
Failure to apply the thermal paste as described in this procedure, and failure to
tighten the torx screws as directed, could cause the computer to overheat and
damage internal components."
I personally haven't had a 1.25 apart. The 700s and 800s I've had apart have a silicone pad like material or thick rubber compond on the heat pipes. The manuals for those machines refer to "thermal pads".
I think you could use a thermal pad material like from Micro Center, Comp USA or Radio Shack.
This is the Radio Shack stuff:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2295074&cp=&sr=1&kw=therma lpad&origkw=thermalpad&parentPage=search
If the thermal stuff was not too badly damaged you'll probably be OK but I'd probably run Temperature Monitor for a while just to make sure.
Richard

External Hard drive not working

I just bought a 1 TB G Drive. Did so because my 2008 Macbook became very slow and wanted to back up all my data. I first tried doing so through disk utility and I thought it backed it up but when I checked nothing was there. Then went through time machine and it said it wouldn't back up because of a specific file. When I went back into disk utility I tried backing up through there again and it said it had an error with connection or something (but I thought that was because my computer went into sleep mode). Then I went back into time machine and it didn't recognize my external hard drive - so I went back into disk utility and it didn't show up on there either.
I am so confused. I was told my an apple employee how to back it up, I followed their instructions which weren't rocket science and it just doesn't make sense to me. Why is it so difficult having my computer backed up?
I read when time machine says there's a unreadable file that could mean something bad. But I'm more concerned with my HD not even being seen by my computer as before I could at least copy and paste files into HD.
I'm not mac savy and don't understand computer tech lingo.

Hi ,
welcome to HP support forums
i wish you to enjoy your time here
please ,
give me more info about your external HDD brand so i can search for more info about it and find out if it needs a specific driver
also , i want you to check your USB port you use
using another port may help , it can be only a problem with the USB port itself or the Driver
anothrt hard TIP : (Use it if you are good with SW problems only)
1.Use Ubuntu Live Disc without installing
2.connect the external HDD and wait till ubuntu discover it
3.now try copying anything t the HDD
now you will face two situations :
1. the copying process will work fine with no errors and now you know it was only a problem with the OS you are using (WIN 7)
2. the copying process won't complete and now there is also two possible things
the first is the USB port or the USB cable you are using >> try replacing it and change the port and repeat
the secong is that the new HDD has a problem or a Bad firmware maybe >> your old HDD has no relation with the problem now as Ubuntu starts in Live mode without using the internal HDD it starts depends on the CD itself and your Ram
Hope this to help you
don't hesitate to Ask again
Please mark my post as SOLVED if it has resolved your problem. It helps others with similar situations.
Mark Th. Antonio
Faculty Of Engineering Alexandria University

Apple external optical drive not working on macbookpro

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