External dvd drive compatibility

I have an HP branded external cd/dvd drive, P/N QA846 AV (the number on the palstic bubble-wrap shipping bag.)
Question: Is this drive compatible with the MAC OS?
Just in case i go to a MAC--if I buy a new computer,Win 8 is so unloved I may as well learn a whole new OS and the Mac Book Air is looking good to me.
Thanks for answers..Barsac

Hi Xardas,
Yes, I've tested other USB devices. All of the following USB devices work fine:
* iPhone 3G
* usb memory sticks
* Western Digital My Book external hard drive (separate power source)
* usb keyboards & mouses
I've just tried updating the chipset. But still no luck :-( Samsung dvd drive still continuously alternately connect & disconnect as generic "USB Storage" device. It doesn't stay connected long enough for me to find out the driver details.
Anyone have any other suggestion?
Thanks,
Lola

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External DVD drives compatibility

Is there an external DVD drives compatibility list anywhere?

Go to Lacie's site
http://www.lacie.com/
Remember that almost all external drive manufactures make them for both Mac and PC. I suggest you make a Google search.
Don

Need to install external dvd drive on mac book pro

My internal DVD drive has quit, so I purchased an apple external DVD drive. How do I get me mac book pro to recognize and install it?

Hi chrisweide,
Mac computers that shipped with a built-in SuperDrive may not be compatible with the external Apple SuperDrive:
Mac computers: Apple USB SuperDrive and MacBook Air SuperDrive compatibility
Regards,
- Brenden

Can I install Tiger using an external DVD drive?

My PowerBook is being repaired and I have to use an older G4/733 tower (OS 9.2; CD/zip drives only) from 2001 ASAP. I purchased Tiger and now need to load it, along with the new software. Rather than purchasing an internal dvd drive, can I buy and external dvd drive to install Tiger/new software? I've seen some posts that say "no" and others that say yes, as long as its firewire, not USB. In looking at external drives, I've seen some compatibility requirements that say OS X as the minimum. Some places like CDW and the Apple store don't seem to have an answer for me. Does anybody here know? thanks!
Bob
PowerPC G4 Mac OS 9.2.x

Internal drives are much cheaper; you can get a DVD burner for under $40 online, vs. well over a $100 for an external, which may or may not boot your specific system.
The NEC ND-3550A or Pioneer DVR-110D will both boot the OS installer DVD when using the "C" Key, or from Startup Disc...
In a QS, you just have to remove the drive tray faceplate before installing the drive; This Apple Article has clear diagrams of the replacement process.

Is it necessary to disable the internal DVD drive to connect an external DVD drive?

Isit necssary to disable an internal DVDdriver to use an external DVD driver? I have permanently jammed a CD into an iMac (mid 2007) DVD / CD drive and purchased an external LG Mac compatable (at the apple reps advice), but the external is not recognized by my iMac. therefore, does the internal drive have to be disabled, and if so, can it be disabled without taking the machine apart?
Thanks
Ed Lynch

Are you still running Leopard as indicated in your profile?
If so, up until Snow leopard (if I remember correctly) there was a patch needed for the OS to recognize an external - my LaCie burner came with it and once I installed it, it worked great. As mentioned though, it still wouldn't show up until you insert a disk. At this point, I doubt that such a patch would still be available as it hasn't been needed for some time.

Satellite A660 - Not finding external DVD drive

Hey guys. Newbie posting out of total desperation and needing help! I have posted in other forums with no luck. I bought a Samsung SH-D162D DVD Drive in a USB enclosure to connect to my Satellite A660 via USB.
I cannot get Windows 7 to find it! When I plug in the USB cable the balloon comes up to say it has been installed (sometimes), I can see it on for about 1 or 2 minutes then it drops off. It isnt listed in my hardware or anything. Its not found in Disk Management or My Devices so it isnt a case of changing the drive letter - I cant find the drive to change it. I have also tried to find the upper and lower settings in regedit. Couldnt find them so couldnt delete them as advised in other posts of this nature.
It is set to master, the IDE connector and power connectors are fine. Its gotta be a Windows 7 problem cause it does show up very breifly. In the minute or 2 its there I cant do anything with it. It just hangs although it will open and close. Ive googled it and cant find anything. Mainly registry issues but they didnt help.
Ive also connected it up to another laptop with XP and had no problems so I know the DVD Rom works fine and all the cables are ok. Ive tried in all 4 USB ports on my laptop and also turned off all energy settings. All with no luck. And I also have every Windows 7 update.
Heres exactly what happens from power off on the enclosure.
1 - I plug in the USB lead then turn on power to the enclosure.
2 - I quickly go to Start, and I can see the DVD Rom drive E next to my laptops dvd rom.
3 - The green bar at the top starts filling up from left to right and gets about half way then suddenly the DVD Rom icon disappears and so does the green bar.
4 - It then flashes up under the laptops DVD Rom icon with a Local Disk drive E but only for a split second.
5 - Sometimes a balloon comes up saying installing device, then device successfully installed...but not every time.
And thats it. I'm at a total loss and cant work it out, so any help is really appreciated!

Hi Smee,
So if you have already connected the external drive to another computer and this worked properly, it seems to be a driver or compatibility issue between your external DVD drive and and your Satellite A660
It will be connected to USB port so have you tried to remove all USB ports from device manager? After this you should restart your computer and the USB ports will be recognized from device manager automatically. Furthermore I would also try updating the chipset driver. Newest version you can download on official Toshiba website:
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com > Support & Downloads > Download Drivers
Have you also tested other devices on your A660 if they work properly?

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).
The only difference between then and now is that I am using an external DVD drive.

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.

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.

Apple dvd player / external dvd drive issue

i recently bought a LaCie d2 external dvd drive, since my desktop g4 only has an internal cdr drive. I am running osx 10.4.3, which i installed through this dvd drive. yet now, when i put a DVD movie into the drive and try to open Apple DVD Player, it says
"There was an initialization error. A valid DVD drive could not be found. [-70012]"
i know this is a third party drive, but can anyone help me out? pleeeease?

This is to be expected. DVD Player will only work
with an external DVD drive if the Mac has an internal
DVD drive.
However you may overcome this limitation using PlayerPatc
h.
I had the same problem as above (error code [-70012])... I downloaded this patch for my LG external DVD/RW Model GSA-2166D and it worked perfectly... can now play DVDs...
It's people like you who make being part of the mac community a joy!
Now I just need to find a patch to get the Light Scribe to work...
Thanks!
A1005 Mac OS X (10.3.9) M8758LL/A

External dvd drive compatibility

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