Does external DVD drive have to be Firewire?

Hi
My Mac mini's optical drive has packed up, it also needs an OS upgrade, I am therefore shopping for an external drive (the internal option is actually more expensive) does it have to be Firewire to boot from the DVD?
thanks

James Harries wrote:
does it have to be Firewire to boot from the DVD?
No, for any Intel-based Mac, external drives (optical or otherwise) do not have to have Firewire interfaces to be useable as boot drives. PPC-based Macs cannot boot from USB drives (actually, a few can but this is not supported by Apple or recommended) but Intel-based Macs can boot from external drives with either interface.
However, external drives with Firewire (& to a lesser extent USB) interfaces should have hardware/firmware that is compatible with the Mac startup sequence. Most do, but some do not, in which case they will not boot the Mac even though they are in all other respects useable as external drives. Typically, externals that have an Oxford brand (for Firewire) or a Cypress brand (for USB) interface chip are the most trouble-free ones for Mac users.
Among others, Other World Computing sells external drives & cases that meet these requirements.

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If your question concerns a hardware or software technical issue, please do not post in this forum — instead, go to the Apple Discussions Homepage, select an appropriate product category and follow the links until you reach the correct forum for your post, then click the Post New Topic link
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Message was edited by: a brody
Message was edited by: a brody

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Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
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Does external DVD drive have to be Firewire?

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