External optical drive in older mac mini

The optical drive in my mini is starting to go bad. Rather than take it in to be replaced, can I just but an external super drive and plug it into the usb and be good to go? Thank you

Yes, just make sure That the Optical Drive is Mac OS X compatible.

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Can I use my old mac mini (G4) as an optical drive with new mac mini late 2014?

Can I use my old mac mini (G4 Tiger) as an optical drive with new mac mini, late 2014?

I think so
DVD or CD sharing: Using Remote Disc - Apple Support
You should also be able to connect the two via FireWire using a FW 400 cable plugged into the old Mini, thne a FR 400 femial to FW 880 adopter plugging into a FW to Thunderbolt adopter
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support

On the mac mini 2011 how can I run windows 7 without the optical drive, On the mac mini 2011 how can I run windows 7 without the optical drive

On the mac mini 2011 how can I run windows 7pm bootcamp without an optical drive. I watch lots of football on sop cast and other such windows based programmes but can't work out how to do it.

Actually Windows can be installed and booted from an external drive if the drive is connected eSATA (external SATA), since the drive is treated as if it's an internal HDD. I used the same method previously to dual-boot from 2 different HDD instead of partitioning.
Most PC motherboards come with them as standard so it's pretty much plug and play but I don't recall seeing a recent Mac with eSATA connectivity though, so that might not be an option for you.

How to install mac os (PPC) on an external hard drive, through a mac mini (intel) ?

Hi all,
Let me explain:
- my iMac G5 iSight has a dead HDD and dead superdrive: No way to get it to run
- I have the installation disc of Tiger (PPC)
- I have an external HDD in FW
- I have a mac mini (Intel)
How to install the Mac OS PPC on the external HDD with the mac mini (Intel) ?

Hello,
You must use the Intel iMac as a Firewire Optical drive.
How to use FireWire target disk mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Disk_Mode
Put the PPC Install Disc in the Intel iMac.
Put the Intel iMac into FireWire target disk mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Boot the G5 iMac holding the Option/alt key, & see if the Install Disc in the Intel iMac shows up as a boot choice.

External Disc Drive disappeared from Mac Mini Devices

Hi Forum,
my External USB2 Drive has disappeared from the devices list on my Mac Mini. When i was with the Mini i turned it off and on, Mini and CD Drive, unplugged and replugged the Drive, but i didnt appear. Ive had to come away for a few days and access the Mini remotely. It still doesnt show.
Is there anyway to make it find it? scan USB ports? look at what is connected? Remotely or when home?
Odd as its not done this before. And im still on OSX 10.8...

From your description I am assuming you have not instgalled any new USB, Bluetooth, Firewire, devices, drivers, hubs, etc.? If my assumption is correct then the logical place to start is with the drive and its connections...
Unplug and replug all USB connections. Surprisingly this may cure a number of different problems.
Try another USB cable.
Boot into Safe mode by holding down the Shift key after a cold boot. If the drive mounts normally then it is likley another USB device drive or device that is the problem.
If you are connecting through a hub, connect directly to the computer. If the drive mounts normally then your hub has probably gone bad.
If possible connect the drive to another Mac. Does it mount normally? If so then the USB port in your Mac may have gone bad. That requires a new logic board to fix.
Reset the SMC.

External hard drive connected to mac Mini is having problems and won't repair

Hi,
Thanks in advance for any support.
My Mac mini (OS 10.7.5) isn't reading the external drive correctly and sometimes doesn't find it at all. When it does find the drive, some folders which I know to be large show up as empty (not always the same folder, I think). I'm quite sure the drive is having problems and want to repair it, just so it can be stable enough to duplicate (i.e. copy the external).
But it won't repair in Disk Utility because it can't unmount. I tried turning off Spotlight via Terminal, but it still won't unmount. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Hi Linc,
Thanks for the reply.
Do you mean installing it in another enclosure? How easy or difficult is it to move the drive -- and should this be done by a professional?
Thanks

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I thought it was only on my Mini but guess others have the same issues too! Sometimes the share would be invisible on the user's computer's desktop but still accessible on the Shared sidebar. Would run the sudo chflags on the user's computer and would appear on the desktop again for everyone. Lately, it's happening on the server itself after a reboot. The volumes would be invisible even on /Volumes but sudo chflags works for me. Hope there's a fix for this.

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Thanks for the help. When I got the new Mac Mini, I was able to restore all my files from the iOmega HD backup. But since then each time I try a TM backup I see the in work wheel spinning (in Finder) but no backup is made. No error messages are given. I will try the trouble shooting list you sent. Thanks again.

Passport external hard drive with new Mac Mini

I am getting a new mac mini soon and wondering if the external hard drive (passport 500GB) I use with my pc will work on the new mac. I have all my photos and music on the passport and want to now use it with the mac only. The pc laptop os going away so i will not be useing the hard drive between t

If it is formatted MS-DOS FAT-32, then the Mac should have no problem both reading and writing to it.
If it is formatted Windows NTFS, then the Mac can only read and not write to it. So on that note, you should be able to move your photo's and music from the NTFS format, then reformat it to either MS-DOS FAT-32 or GUID Mac OS Extended for use with the Mac.
For more clarification, see > Sharing drives | Macworld
To reformat the Passport, see > How to format a drive for Mac OS X - YouTube just keep in mind that reformatting will erase all data on the drive.
Message was edited by: den.thed
Sorry John Hammer1, I didn't see your reply at the time I posted.

What is the best external dvd drive for my Mac Mini

I have a new Mac Mini i5 and i would like to know what is the best external dvd writer to get. I would like to burn mo

The Apple USB superdrive would be a great choice for you, ( http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive?fnode=5f ) I am not certain but I am pretty sure that it has the same form factor as the MacMini (Not thickness but all the other dimenetions) so it fits just under and looks like an extension of your mac.

How do I migrate my itunes library from an external hard drive to my mac mini's internal hard drive?

I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive because my macbook pro's internal hard drive didn't have enough room. I would like to migrate or transfer the itunes files while continuing to keep my playlists. Is there a way to do that with the migration software?

Thank you for your help. My biggest concern is losing all of my sorted music into playlists. I have 124GB of music and resorting it will very difficult. When I moved the itunes library with the help of a supervisor at apple tech to the external HD I had to resort it.
Will it move the entire library and setting as they are now?

Mac mini and External Optical drives

hi all,
just wondering if i'll be able to use external optical drives with my mac mini which doesn't have a DVD writer, it detects and mounts in OSX, but can't playback a dvd or burn, do i have to use any third party software like roxio?
any help would be much appreciated.

You omit specifics but this might help, especially if you already have an external hd on firewire and plan to add an ext optical drive to the firewire chain. Burn Disk created one perfect DVD (consisting of backup files) but then became flaky, dying during burns. Patchburn (www.patchburn.de) did not help this problem but it did change system profile of the new optical drive from: 'unsupported' to 'vendor authorized' which may have helped generally. With Panther it will be required!
I did lots of searching on Web, Groups & Apple Discussions but could not find anything on "Error: 0x80020020: BE, sense error, etc".
I discovered the solution to this problem: I put the DVD external drive between the Mac Mini & the external harddrive (instead of at the end) and now BurnDisk works 100%. "Sense Errors" were common back when I was using SCSI drives and usually pointed to cable length issues. This was the simplest alteration I could make to my PPC G4 Mac Mini setup. I am using the 3 ft shielded cables that came with both of my external enclosures so it is reasurring that these did not have to be modified.
Now Burn Disc creates solid DVDs of backup folders, no more coasters or long pauses in the burning process, followed by the inevitable error code.
Using Pioneer DVR-112D drive in a generic ext enclosure. The drive is current production so I have not modified the firmware. Using Memorex DVD-R from WalMart.
--

Recommend an external optical drive

What is the best external optical drive for a mac book pro?
I don't like the rubbish apple optical drive with no automatic disk ejection.

I went with a Sony but here's a page reviewing a lot of what's available:
http://external-dvd-burner-review.toptenreviews.com/
For best speeds get one with a Firewire IO (but that limits your choice)

New MAC Mini w/OSX Lion - will not boot from USB or external optical drive when attempting to use BootCamp to install Windows 7?

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Meh, with the price they take for a drive in Denmark, I don't think it's worth it... They take around 160 $ for the drive (that's the cheapest MacBook drive I could find), and I am not even sure that's the one I need.

Installing Win7 on a macbook pro using a mac mini as external optical drive

hi everyone,
My 2 year old son watches movies on my macbook pro. He stuck something in the optical drive making it unusable. Repairing it is 200 to 300 euros (ouch).
I want to install win7 via bootcamp and I'm using my mac mini (october 2009) as an external optical drive. These are my steps:
1.hold the "t" on the mac mini
2.connect it to the macbook with a firewire 800 to firewire 400 cable
3.Power up and hold the "alt" on the macbook
4.I see the optical drive on the boot screen and I choose it
5.Then I get a blank screen and a few seconds later the "missing operating system" message appears.
Am I missing something? Is it possible to install win7 using a mac mini as an external drive?
PS1:I already have partitioned the HD with bootcamp.
PS2:I've upgraded the hard disk drive of the macbook with a seagate momentus 500GB hard disk. Don't think this is the problem, thought I should mentioned it.

Hi Mike,
For reference it is called "IP over Firewire".
Connect the two computers with a fire wire cable. System Preferences > Network > Configure IPv4: > Manually > IP address: 192.168.3.1 (and .2 on other) > Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0. Leave the other fields blank. Do this on both computers on the computer you want to allow access to or both for two way access go to System Preference > Sharing > Select a service to change its settings. Turn remote Login on.
On the MBP go to the Finder Menu > Go > Connect to Server > Type in the IP address of the Mini 192.168.3.2 (Whatever you gave it)
With this configuration you still have full use of the Mini and certain apps can use Xgrid and use the processor of the mini when it is not doing anything. I would keep the Mini as 10.4 unless you really need both machines running Leopard. As noted before you cannot boot the MBP from a HDD that is Apple Partition Scheme and vice versa you cannot boot the PPC from a Guide Partition Table.
Sweet Polly

External optical drive in older mac mini

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