External Optical Drive - some discs work

Hi there,
I've hooked up an old Imation CD-RW to my DV
via USB. The internal slot drive is problematic.
It seems to read data CDs well enough but not
movies or audio.
I'm trying to update my 9.0.4 to 9.2.2 to see if it
will help. What else should I look into?
Thanks, Chops.

Chops...
"I am unable to mount video and audio discs."
"I can only view the first burn."
Are those all burned CDs and is the burning software installed on that specific computer? Same drive used in burning the CDs?
There seems to be many other variables your dealing with that hasn't surfaced from your origonal "sounding" post.
•Media Speed / Media Incompatabilties as how they were burned / General media issues.
•CarbonLib1.6 (Some modern apps require this one)
•Joliet (Helps in mounting burned CDs)
I have just touched the surface with things off the top of my head, so there is probably more.
...Ron

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External optical drive won't work on macbook pro retina.

I have a macbook pro retina which doesn's have an optical drive. I have bought an optical drive. When I plug it in and put a disk in I can hear the disk spinning and the light comes on but nothing happens on my mac. It doesn't seem to recognise it. Any suggestions?

Anniefb1 wrote:
I have a macbook pro retina which doesn's have an optical drive. I have bought an optical drive. When I plug it in and put a disk in I can hear the disk spinning and the light comes on but nothing happens on my mac. It doesn't seem to recognise it. Any suggestions?
Just had that happen to me.
First, run Disk Utility and see if the SuperDrive (it is an Apple SuperDrive isn't it?) is listed. Is the disk you inserted shown? If not, hold down the option key and click the Apple menu - choose System Information and when that shows up, choose USB. See if it's listed there. If it is but neither the drive nor the disk you inserted appears on the Desktop, the side bar of the Finder window, or Disk Utility, return it for a refund (if it's within 14 days of purchase) or a replacement. That's what I had to do a few hours ago and the replacement works as it should.
BTW, if you want the disk you inserted back, and pressing the trackpad as you reboot doesn't eject the disk, as a last resort run Terminal and enter (copy and paste the following)
/usr/bin/drutil eject
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I had tried installing windows 8.1 pro with many different solutions like using Bootcamp or using gdisk part and upgrading the disk part from hybrid to EFI also tried Using Lenevo external Optical drive which doesnt worked my internal drive is damage

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1. You cannot use the Lenovo external drive, because you already have a built-in SuperDrive. Get your internal drive fixed.
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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
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Click here and follow the instructions.
(77810)

External optical drive

Hi all,
My optical drive stopped working the other day, and seeing as how in about another year i'm going to replace my macbook anyways, I'm looking for the least intensive way to get around this.
Years ago in my PC days I bought a Sony CRX230AE/U 52X CD-ROM burner, is there a way I can get an adapter to turn it into an external CD drive? or should I just decide whether having a drive is worth buying a normal external one?
-moyerbean

Just decide whether having a drive is worth buying a normal external one.
There is something wrong with these drives.
All the Macbooks ive bought till date have had this exact same problem.
Other people i know like friends & relatives whom i converted to macs from pc also have the same problem.
The only thing to remedy this is to be hopeful that ur still in warranty.
Else, just buy an external Optical drive which will work out cheaper & will work for a long time
Hope Apple wakes up to this problem which is a major defect.
Hope this helps.

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.
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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.

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:
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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.

HT3964 Hi folks, I own am IMac 27" running OS X 10.8.2. The optical drive has stopped working in that it accepts the disc but spits the CD, DVD even my original iMac install DVD back out, after attempting to read the disc. Any of you kind folks any ideas?

Hi folks, I own am IMac 27" running OS X 10.8.2. The optical drive has stopped working in that it accepts the disc but spits the CD, DVD even my original iMac install DVD back out, after attempting to read the disc. Any of you kind folks any ideas?

Have you tried one of those CD cleaning Discs yet?
Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.

Do third party external optical drives work with retina powerbook?

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Clinton

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I have a standard MacBook from 2007. The optical drive broke a while ago. I was just wondering what external optical drives, if any, are compatible and work with this model?

You can get a fairly cheap external CD/DVD burner/player at Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/External-CD-DVD-Blu-Ray-Drives/SubCategory/ID-420?Order=PR ICE

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Can I have someone with experience with external optical drives to give me professional advice or just other people with solutions.
Below is an image of what I have now for an enclosure.

Vespita wrote:
Okay, wise guy. I don't use Google, but my Startpage seach yielded this.
Now wasn't that easier than asking us to look for the item for you?
Let me fix your link for you.
"Okay, wise guy. I don't use Google, but my Startpage seach yielded this"

Can "Refit" Be Used for USB Boot From External Optical Drive?

Since the new Mac Mini 2011 has no optical drive, how would one make a generic USB 2.0 optical drive act as a boot device? I have heard that a utility called "Refit" can alter the boot loading order and device choices in Macs. I suppose it is also possible that the new Mini may already be set up to boot first from USB. I would appreciate any comments. It would be nice to have some kind of optical drive boot option for Windows installation and other possible utilities that need to boot before the OS in order to work. Maybe I will have to take my external optical drive to an Apple store to find out. Hope not. I also suspect that a USB keyboard will be mandatory for "Refit" and the boot drive to be used before Mac OS X is loaded.

No utility should be needed.
You can hold the Option key down during the boot process to select which drive you wish to use as a boot device.
Also pressing and holding C boots to the optical drive.
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MBP Late 2010, How can I install Win7 Boot Camp using External Optical Driv

Hello:
I have a new MBP purchased in February. It's not the 2011 model. I replaced the Optical drive with an SSD drive and put the optical drive in an external enclosure. The Optical drive works great, reads, writes, etc. My Windows 7, Pro 64bit DVD works also, tested on a PC.
I use the Boot Camp assistant to create a partition. It them reboots and never starts up from the optical drive. I get an Apple logo alternating with a stop sign.
I have got back to OS X by starting with the Option key and choosing my OS X volume.
I tried booting to the DVD by using the option key, that did not work. I then choose the EFI option which allowed me to hit any key and appeared to boot from the external optical drive. Windows setup screen came up and I hit enter to start the file loading process. It eventually stopped when the progress bar was all the way across the screen. Then nothing.
Questions {Please give definitive answers, not guesses, thanks :)}
1) Is it possible to setup a boot camp Windows installation without an internal optical drive? Yes/No.
2) If yes, how?
3) I see the rEFIt utility has helped some but I read mixed reports. Will this help me boot and run Windows setup from an external optical drive? I don't want to install it if it's not known to be a certain fix.
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I chatted to OWC the vendor that sells the bracket. They had no idea how to install a Windows BC partition without an internal drive.
I am seriously discouraged by what seems to be Apple wanting to control everything. I had a Mac Pro and Air book in my future but now, it's on hold.
Thanks in advance,
Kevin

I tried what you are doing with a 2007 MBP, and could not get any Windows CD s to boot from an external optical drive, firewire or USB.
I think this is fundamental to Windows which won't boot from an external USB drive either even on a Windows machine (although I believe there may be complex ways of achieving this). I don't think this is Apple trying to control the world.
I ended up taking the MCE Optibay out and putting the original optical drive back in.
Just possible that something has changed between a 2007 MBP and 2010 MBP, but I doubt it.
If you want the second internal HD, you have two options:-
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2. Parallels, which has come a long way in the last two years. I am 99% certain that Parallels will install from an external optical.
Message was edited by: Mike Boreham
Message was edited by: Mike Boreham
Message was edited by: Mike Boreham

External optical drive won't play movie DVD

The SuperDrive on my very late 2009 MacBook (OS 10.5.8, Leopard) died, and I got a well-rated CD/DVD player/writer, Samsung SE-218BB) instead. It is meant to be compatible with my Mac. It works with things like Disk Warrior, but recently, I tried to play a video disk and got the message "Utilization error. A valid DVD player could not be found (-70012)." I've read a lot of other messages about this same error and have done what was recommended (throwing out the appropriate plist file from DVD player, for example). The messages were for other Mac models and/or versions of OS X, so maybe there is some advice that is specific to my Mac that would pertain? By the way, the DVD does show up in the Finder in a generic kind of way (that is, I think it is the kind/manufacturer of the disk,but it certainly isn't the name of what is on it), and when I click on that, it opens a bunch of separate files that don't seem to have much to do with watching the movie.
I also tried one of the tips given in the DVD Player manual (dragging the file to the DVD Player icon. All that did was make the DVD disappear. I had to restart,, with the mouse "button" (really not a button) on the Mac pressed, which released the DVD from the external drive.
I don't think the problem's with the hardware, since I can play Disk Warrior in it (that opens automatically after I insert the DVD. So what's with the movies? I've checked Software Update, and my software (DVD Player 7.7) is up to date for my Mac and OS version. I don't even know whether I should be using DVD Player for movies. (I haven't tried a music DVD, but I suspect that should open in some other app.) I don't remember playing movies on my computer when the internal SuperDrive was still working, so I can't make that comparison.
I hope you can help me. I'd be very sorry if I had to give up on playing the DVDs I now have. My VHS/DVD player-recorder used to be just fine, but my cable company set it back up wrong when they installed a new cable box, and now they want $50 even to look at it, so for now (until I find some company, say, the manufacturer of the player, that can tell me how to set it back up) the only way I can play and burn movies is with my computer.
Thanks,
jenny

I have discovered, no thanks to Samsung techs, what the problem is, and it might be revealing for others, as well. It seems that DVD Player, which is the app Apple provides in OS x for (naturally) playing videos, doesn't work with external drives if the computer has an internal drive – even when, as in my case, the internal drive is dead.
I have learned, however, of the existence of a couple of alternative, free applications that run video and audio disks with external optical drives, and one of them, at least (VLC), seems to be widely acclaimed. Does anyone know whether bypassing DVD Player could be a bad idea? There were some gripes from one or two reviewers about awkwardness with playing audio DVDs with iTunes, but I'm not sure what they meant when they said that you have to click on individual items in a selection. Would that mean, for example, having to click on each movement of a Mozart trio? That I couldn't play an entire album's contents of another kind of music without clicking on each song?
Getting the internal optical drive replaced would be prohibitive, even if the parts could be obtained, so I guess I'm stuck trying to deal with the external drive I have and finding the best replacement for DVD Player that I can find. The interesting thing is that the drive works beautifully with a MacBook Air I tried it with, so I guess that is because the Air doesn't have an internal drive?
Wouldn't you think that Samsung techs would know all this? The one I spoke to told me to make sure that my system preference for CDs and DVDs was set to open automatically with DVD Player and sent me all kinds of FAQs, plus a way to get an RMA number for a return. Not a word about difficulties with Macs having an existing internal drive. And all after spending a very long time talking with me about what was going on, what the error message was, and so on. I guess the message hasn't gotten to them.
I hope this information will be helpful to someone.

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.
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--

External Optical Drive - some discs work

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