Encore isn't recognising an external DVD drive

I have a macbook pro with a disk drive that broke after a year so I had to buy an external one. This is the first time I've tried to burn a DVD using this external drive and when I press the build button the program tries to use the internal drive rather than the external one despite both of them powering up and making encouraging noises. The message pops up saying: Please insert DVD media, close the tray and click ok. Despite there being a DVD in the external drive but not the internal one, it insists on trying to use the internal. Is there a way to change the settings so it goes to the external drive instead?

In the build panel, with DVD disk selected as "output," under "destination," you should see "recorder," and a triangle for a drop down to select which drive.

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How do I get iDVD5 to recognise my external DVD Drive ?

I have just bought a LaCie Double Layer bus-powered Firewire DVD. It is an NEC DVD+-RW ND-6550A device. The drive came with Toast 6 Titanium, which is now installed.
I also have an internal Matshita DVD reader/ CD writer as part of the original G4 setup.
When I attempt to burn a project in iDVD5.0.1, the internal drive opens up and I get a message telling me to insert a DVD, even though this is not a DVD writer. I've tried Control-clicking the Burn icon, but nothing different happens. There is no option for drive selection in the iDVD menu structure either.
I don't really want to spend ages writing Disk Images, then writing to the LaCie, and I've searched this forum for a similar issue - but 'fraid I can't find anything similar. Does anyone have any suggestions that will enable iDVD to recognise the external LaCie ?
Appreciate any advice
Paul

I don't really want to spend ages writing Disk Images, then writing to the LaCie
Don't skip this route - the amount of "extra" time is almost zero - in effect iDVD is doing this anyway behind the scenes to some degree. And separating encoding from burning makes a lot of sense. I always "Save as Disk Image" and burn separately.
And there is a guy that works for LaCie that frequent this forum:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?224@@[email protected]/7
I think you just need the proper disk burning profile from LaCie. You could probably e-mail Mike at the address on his profile. Or post a new thread titled "Question for Mike - LaCie Firewire and iDVD5"
John B.

My computer doesn't recognise my external hard drive

My macbook doesn't seem to recognise my external hard drive (OS 10.8.3).
The hard drive connects to laptop via USB, but gets power from another plug in the wall. When I plug it in, its icon does not appear on desktop, or in Finder menu.
The hard drive works fine on my sisters laptop (Macbook, about 5 years old). Other storage devices work fine in my macbook, and appear rapidly on both desktop and finder menu when I insert them.
Have any of you encountered this before? Can you tell me how can I fix it???

Check out KB Article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10866 OS X Mountain Lion: If a CD or DVD doesn’t appear on the desktop

Internal DVD drive is shot. Can I install SL from an external DVD drive?

Hi folks, a quick (well actually a few) questions.
I've had my imac since early '06. It's currently running Tiger, and I'd like to install Snow Leopard. The problem is that the internal DVD drive is shot. It's been occasionally refusing to accept DVDs for a while now, and now it has a DVD stuck in it (not mounted), which I can't get out via terminal, rebooting, or jiggling it (technical term I know).
Now, I'm going to assume that getting apple to replace the DVD drive will be more expensive than just grabbing an external drive, especially as I'll most probably only use it once. The question is, if I grab a cheap external DVD drive, will I be able to install Snow Leopard with it? Or will Tiger not recognise it as a boot drive?
Many thanks,
Chris
p.s. Also, I'm using a cheapo windows style keyboard (will be replacing asap), and I'm wondering if this is why I can't see bootable drives when holing option on startup?

Yes, you can install from an external drive, although I wouldn’t go for a cheap one. There are good, relatively inexpensive, drives out there. And you are going to need that option key to select the install disk as your startup. I believe there is a corresponding key on a PC keyboard, but I don’t know what it is (maybe Alt?). I’m sure someone can jump in here and tell us.

Macbook pro external DVD drive initialization error 70012

This is an answer to my own question and a comment about finding answers to questions on Apple forums.
The situation
I have a Macbook Pro, late-2009 model. In 2013, the internal DVD or optical drive died. I purchased an Apple external DVD drive to be able to read DVD disks, listen to audio, and watch video content. Because the computer I own was built to read only the internal DVD drive, it did not recognize this new external drive. When I plugged it in, I received an error: A valid DVD drive could not be found [-70012]. Or , or DVD could not be found, initialization error[- 70012].
The question
Given this situation, my question was, how do I solve DVD initialization error 70012?
The answer
Since my Apple Care plan had long since expired, before spending time and money at the Apple store to solve this, I decided to look online. After searching general sites and more and more specific sites, I found several posts on forums about my problem. The most helpful of these, with respect to an external DVD drive, was posted on CNET, by Topher Kessler (June 10, 2011 2:24 PM PDT):
http://www.cnet.com/news/addressing-dvd-player-error-70012-when-using-external-d rives-in-os-x/
The key to his advice was twofold:
1. Hardware: The Macbook Pro was programmed to recognize the internal DVD/optical drive alone.
2. Software: The preferences in the Macbook Pro were set to open Apple's DVD Player when a disc is inserted into the drive.
To play audio or video discs on an external drive, the computer needed to be instructed to recognize the external drive, plus appropriate software needed to be opened. Mr. Kessler's advice went from hardware (i.e., get a new internal drive), to software (i.e., use different audio or video software), to operating system (i.e., alter the code in the operating system). Like with Goldie Locks, the first was too expensive, the last was too invasive, but the middle option was just right.
I searched for free software to display audio and video on my external drive and found two that could do the job quite nicely. There are others, but these seemed to be the most recognized and highly rated:
1. MPlayerX (http://mplayerx.org/download.html)
2. VLC Media Player (http://download.cnet.com/mac/media-players/?rpp=30)
So, I didn't have to buy an internal DVD drive and I didn't have to alter the code of the operating system. I just needed to download free software, install, and play.
The points to learn
1. Computers involve both hardware and software, therefore solutions to computer problems can require fixes to one, the other, or both.
2. The simplest solution, and the least expensive, is to be preferred over the more complex.
3. What went wrong for someone else is not necessarily what happened to your computer or software.
4. What solved someone else's problem may not solve your problem.
5. Just because nobody has posted information on how to solve your problem doesn't mean there isn't a solution to it.

Hi Duane,
Thanks for the info! That's some catch-22 for DVD Player... but useful info. I guess I'll just pick up a generic DVD-ROM to replace the drive with.
As to the external drive, do not USB 2.0 cases run at the same speeds at Firewire 400 cases? (the same drive has no issues on other machines for playing dvds... just the lampshade iMac)

Macbook Pro not able to burn from External DVD drive

Hi there,
I just bought a Samsung SE-208DB external drive for my 2011 Macbook Pro 8,1 13inch and at first the drive was detected by my Macbook Pro and I was able ot burn a disk but now when I plug in the device, it powers on for a bit then powers off to were I can't eject the disk anymore.Then sometimes it works just fine. I am using an external USB hub with AC plug power so I am confident power to the USb isn't an issue. I just wanted to know are Macbook Pro known to have issues with external drives?
And for those wondering why I don't just use the internal DVD on my Macbook Pro, I replaced it with an SSD for dedicated Windows 7 operating system.
Any ideas on how to approached this problem? Should I just get another brand of external DVD drive. I know I can't get Apples as for some strange reason, Apple makes those only compatible with Macs that didn't come with DVD drives like the Macbook Air.
Thanks

Ok I solved it.
The problem is that the drive uses too much power from the usb port.
You can use one of those cables with on one end two usb plugs and on the other end a mini usb. Connect the coresponding usb for power to an iphone charger or any 5v/1amp charger.
Or you can do what I did. I used a usb hub. In one usb port I connected my iphone charger and the drive to another usb port on the hub.
I have just burned my first succesful disc.
Regards

ITunes will not recognise my CD/DVD drive

iTunes will not recognise my CD/DVD drive but other windows programs does

Here's the info
Microsoft Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
System manufacturer System Product Name
iTunes 10.2.2.12
QuickTime 7.6.9
FairPlay 1.11.17
Apple Application Support 1.5.1
iPod Updater Library 10.0d2
CD Driver 2.2.0.1
CD Driver DLL 2.1.1.1
Apple Mobile Device 3.4.0.25
Apple Mobile Device Driver 1.55.0.0
Bonjour 2.0.5.0 (214.3)
Gracenote SDK 1.8.2.457
Gracenote MusicID 1.8.2.89
Gracenote Submit 1.8.2.123
Gracenote DSP 1.8.2.34
iTunes Serial Number 0040B0400138AD20
Current user is not an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2011-05-02 23:12:22.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.
WebKit-accelerated compositing is enabled.
HDCP is supported.
Core Media is supported.
Video Display Information
ATI Technologies Inc., ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
**** External Plug-ins Information ****
No external plug-ins installed.
iPodService 10.2.2.12 (x64) is currently running.
iTunesHelper 10.2.2.12 is currently running.
Apple Mobile Device service 3.3.0.0 is currently running.
**** CD/DVD Drive Tests ****
No drivers in LowerFilters.
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.2.0.1),
B: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22LS50, Rev TL03
Audio CD in drive.
Found 16 songs on CD, playing time 62:58 on Audio CD.
Track 1, start time 00:02:33
Track 2, start time 03:16:25
Track 3, start time 07:08:50
Track 4, start time 10:59:65
Track 5, start time 15:38:50
Track 6, start time 19:56:65
Track 7, start time 24:21:48
Track 8, start time 28:47:25
Track 9, start time 32:04:43
Track 10, start time 36:14:23
Track 11, start time 40:20:10
Track 12, start time 44:06:20
Track 13, start time 47:14:20
Track 14, start time 51:00:68
Track 15, start time 56:10:15
Track 16, start time 58:42:55
Audio CD reading succeeded.
Get drive speed succeeded.
The drive CDR speeds are: 4 8 16 24 32 40 48.
The drive CDRW speeds are: 4.
The drive DVDR speeds are: 4.
The drive DVDRW speeds are: 4.
The diagnosits can see the drive under 'Optical drive detected' and passes all the tests but it does not show up under 'Devices' (on the left hand panel). I've tried repair under Control Pane/Uninstall a program (twice) removed and re-installed iTunes. I don't believe the problem lies with my drive OR Windows as the drive is visable in all my other programs (Windows Media Player, Windows Explorer, RealPlayer + all my other software that can access a drive.

All users GONE except for "Other"...and CANNOT boot from External DVD drive

I booted the iMac (Intel...the last one with the White Bezel) tonight, and all of my users were GONE except for "Other." The internal Superdrive has had a disc jammed in it for months, so instead I have an OWC external USB/FW400/FW800 DVD drive. Snow Leaopard.
I need to boot from the SL install disc, but that must go into the external drive...which, as it's been since I upgraded to SL, the Mac sometimes sees and sometimes doesn't. Right now it can't see it. Which leaves me a big pile of crap, doesn't it?
So, what to do? I can't boot the internal drive because it's jammed with a DVD (or I spend $300 to replace what should be a $20 optical drive in it), I can't boot the external DVD drive because the iMac w/Snow Lepeord can't see it, and, meanwhile, all of my photos, etc., are on my Time Machine backup drive...which, as long as I can't do any of the above, just sits there...useless.
Can you tell I'm a bit frustrated with this?
I've reset the PRAM. I've rebooted. I've held down all sorts of combinations of keys. I've tried every single interface type on the external drive and the same thing - the drive can't be seen by the computer.
Has the internal hard drive failed? Nope. I'm tying this using the Firefox browser that's running on my Windows XP installation via Boot Camp on the internal hard drive.

Thanks, but no luck so far.
I have an old iMac G3 downstairs, and I connected it to the machine via Firewire. I could see the disk on the 24" iMac, its folders, etc. I wanted to see if I could install OS X via Target Disk Mode from the old machine to the new one, but it's a PowerPC machine and you can't do that. Maybe you can't do that from ANY iMac...I'm not that experienced.
Now the iMac isn't booting at all to Windows via Boot Camp - it's been booting for 45 minutes now with the "WinXP" logo, but nothing. I'm about to throw it in the car and haul it over to my parents, who have both a Powerbook and a 27" iMac. Maybe it'll work there. Who knows.
Other ideas...replace the internal hard drive (cheap)...if that doesn't work, I'll just sell the thing. I'm not going to sink $300 into the thing when I can get a new machine for around $600-$700. I may go to a Windows7 machine on the desktop and a Powerbook...maybe even an iPad.
I really want to love this iMac. It's my first (well, I did have the G3, but that was just to play with) Mac. It's given me a ton of problems since I bought it new. It's always been a "stock" machine - nothing weird done to it. I was hit with an iMovie update once, and that broke iMovie. Even the new iLife 2009 didn't fix it. Then, the internal optical disk drive failed. I couldn't believe that Apple used a proprietary optical drive rather than a stock Pioneer model. Price for the drive alone? $200.
I installed Snow Leopard 2 months ago, and that completely broke my ability to use external optical drives. Sometimes they work...most times they don't. This is an ongoing problem that many people are having (check the forums)...but no fix. Where does that leave me? With a useless computer.
So, I've boiled it down to this: I love the Mac software. I hate the hardware. Sure, it's pretty, but if something goes wrong, get ready to pay. I hate that Apple knows about problems, yet does nothing to address them, like the problem with external optical drives and Snow Leopard.
I bought the Mac because I was sick of Microsoft not being able to simply produce an OS full of security holes. Often times I read people bashing supposed "driver ****" with Windows, but look at what users of Windows machine are demanding of Microsoft - "please make my software compatible with the trillions of combinations of hardware that can run the os...all the way back to stuff that was created in the mid 1990s." Meanwhile, from my experience, Apple can't get their software to work with their own proprietary, supposedly vertically-controlled hardware.
Windows7 is a not bad OS. It's got it's faults, of course. But, if my optical drive failed in a Windows box, I'd have it replaced in 10 minutes...with a bluray drive...that can write...for under $100.
I use my computer for pictures, etc. In fact, we were ready to send off to iPhoto for our yearly photo books. That's not going to happen, as the photos are forever trapped on my Time Machine backup drive (lesson learned: dump photos to a generic format...fat32 works...just in case you decide to switch from Mac to Win7). iLife is great. MS Office is great, too, on the Mac. I love the little things the Mac does right.
After years of screwing around with my Windows box, I wanted a computer that acted like a consumer electronic device. That's not what I've gotten.
Ugh, so now do I buy a Mac Mini for $700, a new iMac for $1,400, or a Macbook Pro and a mac mini?
...or...do I continue to work within this silly Ubuntu Linux world?
Whatever the answer, I wish I didn't have to ask the question now.

Boot Windows AND FreeBSD from my MacBook Pro 8,3 using an external DVD drive. I'm considering to remove my DVD-ROM and replace it with an SSD drive. That doesn't seem to work. Why not?

As the title says, I'm attempting to boot off my favorite operating systems, Mac OS X, Windows 7 and FreeBSD from an external DVD drive. However, for some odd reasons, booting the Windows DVD and FreeBSD 9.1 install DVD from the external drive does not seem to work. I was able to create a bootable USB with the Windows installer, but whenever I attempt to do the same with FreeBSD, I only get an error message that says "No bootable device -- press any key to restart." Is this a limitation that Apple deliborately created? If so, why won't Apple let its customers do whatever they please with their computers, considering that customers who want to change the hardware and/or operating systems knows what he is doing, without having to worry about some silly Apple limitations?
If I sound rude, I apologize for that, as no impoliteness is intended from my side.
In advance, thanks. Have a wonderful day, everyone.

That is only partially correct at best.
When you are booting off Windows or any other operating systems that usually don't support EFI (including Windows), your Mac uses something called CSM-BIOS. And as long as that CSM-BIOS implementation on EFI-based Mac do not support booting off from USB (note that Mac OS X Installer works fine when booting from USB), not even a USB Apple SuperDrive which once was an internal drive, there mot definately is something for Apple to fix.
When attempting to install Windows via BootCamp, a somewhat hybrid GTP/MBR table is created. When you boot off the installer disc of the OS you intend to install (i.e. Windows 7, FreeBSD, etc), your Mac might not support the EFI boot option (at least my 2011 17-inch MacBook Pro doesn't support that), so the only way of booting that second OS installer is via the regular BIOS, which Apple's EFI based systems implement as CSM-BIOS.

How do I install Tiger on a G3 iMAC from an external DVD drive?

I want to install Tiger on my PPC G3 iMAC. It is 500MHZ with 512 MB Ram, running 10.3.9. It has a CD drive, but CD version of Tiger is no longer available. I purchased a retail version of Tiger, and, on the advice of the Apple Store personnel, purchased an external DVD drive. It is a USB Lacie drive. My iMAC sees the DVD, but when I click the Install icon, it has a Restart button. Clicking the button restarts for 10.3.9. Same thing happens when I use the "C" key. When I try to assign the DVD drive as the startup drive, it says "ding" and won't assign it. What can I do next?

Take the DVD drive back and exchange it for a Firewire model. You cannot boot the iMac from a USB drive. This is basic information your Apple store personnel should know unless you failed to tell them what Mac model you have.

Can I use USB external DVD Drive to boot up my G4?

My G4 (PCI Graphics) internal drive DVD-ROM is not working, its dead. I want to replace it with an External USB or Firewire Lacie DVD Drive.
According to Apple document http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58606, my computer cant boot up from Firewire devices. I think that means, I wont be able reinstall my Mac OS or install future systems or start my DiskWarrior from the CD. Using a external Firewire DVD Drive. Let me know if I am wrong?
Can I use a USB external DVD Drive to boot up?
G4 (PCI Graphics) 400 mhz, 488Mb Memory, 50GB, 9.2.2 & 10.3.9. USB 1.0 & Firewire 400 Ports
G4 (PCI Graphics) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi, Harold -
Bad news - your G4 (PCI) model can not boot to either a firewire drive nor to a USB drive.
Although the G4 (PCI) models do have native firewire, they (and their cousins the B&W G3) are specifically exempted from firewire booting; there is no workaround for this -
Article #58606 - FireWire Booting
Relatedly, a G4 (PCI) machine can be the Host machine in a Firewire Target Disk Mode setup, but can not be the Target machine.
Article #58583 - Firewire Target Disk Mode
USB booting was introduced first on the G4 (AGP) model, and is not available on earlier Mac models -
Article #58430 - USB Info and Benefits of Dual-Channel USB
The only external drive your G4 (PCI) can be booted to is a SCSI drive - but that requires that the machine have an appropriate SCSI PCI card installed.
Replacing the internal optical drive might be the best choice, particularly for ease of maintenance and OS installing in the future.

Using Recovery Media on External DVD Drive

Now that I know my internal dvd drive is fried, can I use my recovery media utilizing my external dvd drive?
I have a x205 9800 running Windows 7.
I put the recovery media in the external dvd drive and it still wants to run it from the internal.
I have disabled my internal "mat**bleep**a dvd ram uj-850s". No luck.
Any help would be deeply appreciated.
Thanks
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Tamkhai,
The USB dvd drive is plugged into my laptop. I am able to get into the boot up area with F12, but it will only allow me to change the order. I put the USB to the top of the list. I restart the computer and it brings up the Toshiba Recovery window. I select OK. It says "Insert Disc 1." I insert disc 1 into the external and then it tries to utilize the internal dvd drive. Even if I disable it or uninstall the dvd drive it still wants to go directly to it.

Installing Windows XP on Lion using external DVD drive

Hi, this is my first time posting on a forum at all, so just keep that in mind when dealing with me.
I have recently attempted to install Windows XP by partitioning my drive using the disk utility (seeing as Bootcamp no longer supports Windows XP installations). The problems start when I boot from the installation disk; an error "no bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key" occurs. I am inclined to believe that this is due to me using an external DVD drive when doing all of this. I am using an external DVD drive because my internal DVD drive has been spoilt and is no longer useable.
Does anyone have a solution for me? It seems that it is not possible to install windows using an external DVD drive.

I am doing this after doing a full wipe of my hard drive and reinstalling lion.
Previously, I had lion, and made a partition using disk utility and booted from the disk (this time it was from my Mac's SuperDrive which was functioning perfectly at this point in time) and finished the installation completely fine. I then used the drivers that were in my Snow Leopard DVD (I have a Snow Leopard DVD from a previous Mac I purchased).
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How do I run system recovery dvd from an external dvd drive?

I am having trouble trying to restore my DV 6000 (dv6915nr) from an external dvd drive. I am aware that this laptop has had several hardware issues, including the loss of use of the internal dvd drive and have tried all the fixes that I could find,including changing filter settings in the registry, changinging the boot order in the bios and even removing the intenal drive. Since none of these fixes worked, I removed the hard drive and installed window 7 Prodessional in a desktop computer. After reinstalling drive in laptop, I installed all the Vista drivers from HP. Computer works fine except for sound card and Nic that failed and have been replaced by USB devices. Simce I am not 100% sure the hardware failures are motherboard failures and not software, I would really like to run my System Restore DVDs that I purchased from HP. And that's where I need help.
I am A Plus and Network Plus certified, so I am pretty sure that I have tried all the obvious soutions. Evedrything turned on, checked the cables, accessed dvd in wimdows and even ran restore disk in a desktop machine to the point that it told me I was trying to restore the wong computer. I downloaded a program called Win To Flash that allows you to copy a setup disk to an external hard drive, but that didn't work. HP restore disk does not have Setup file on it, so it wouldn't copy to drive. Tried just copying the disk to external and that didn't work either. Also tried switching drive letters D and E without any success.
Bios choices are:
USb floppy
ATAPI cd/dvd rom drive
USB diskette on key
Notebook Hard drive
Network Adapter
Original restore partition is long gone.
I would rather restore it with an external Hard drive, not an USB memory stick. I think both would work the same. I do have an USB floppy drive, if there is some way of starting installation from floppies.
Like I said, I really like the computer, even with all its faults, but I would like to restore it to its original Operating System.

Some progress, I got it to try to boot from an external hard drive. Downloaded a program called WINToboot. tried to run it, got as far as formatting my hard drive and might have loaded some kind of boot program. Would not copy my restore disks because they did not have set up program. Copied both restore disks to hard drive and tried to boot laptop. F0 produced choose external hard drive choice. Got "no OS found" error. only choice ctl alt del. I think I am headed in right direction. Just need to know what to load on external hard drive.

How do I install an amazon external dvd drive to replace a broken internal one in my old macbook?

My old macbook has a broken optical drive inside it. The one that came with it has quit working and the genius at the genius bar said it needed to be replaced. The genius said to get an external one online so I bought the Amazon basics external dvd drive. I can't figure out how to install it and get it to work.

Nothing will show up on the desktop until you put a CD/DVD in it.
Plug it into the FireWire or USB port and turn it on. Put a CD/DVD in it and it should show up on the desktop.

Encore isn't recognising an external DVD drive

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