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.
My old optical drive used Llitescribe and I really want to carry on using it with the Imac, Can any of you guys recommend an optical drive with Litescribe that will work with the Imac and os Lion? I am getting tired of having to spend out money replacing things I expected to work with the Mac and dont!
I brought the Imac because I wanted a hassle free computer, I read and took in all the reasons for using Mac over Microsoft and to be hounest with you the Last 3 weeks have nearly driven me to send the Imac back! I expected it to "just work" and be easier to use but it has not turned out that way for me up to now, I have contacted Apple about the problems and they dont seem to be of very much help - up to now, but thanks to you guys and this forum I am getting things sorted, slowly. Apple need to get thier act together I think! What hurts the most is that my 3 year old £600.00. HP PC with windows 7 worked "out of the box" and has "just worked" to this day! I cannot say that about the £1650.00. Imac!

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.

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I have a Seagate Slim Portable 500 GB USB 3.0 external hard drive that worked great with my Macbook Pro 13" Retina but gets ejected and won't show files on any iMac.

I have a Seagate Slim Portable 500 GB USB 3.0 external hard drive that worked great with my Macbook Pro 13" Retina but gets ejected and won't show files on any iMac. My Macbook Pro and the two different iMacs I tried it on were all using Mountain Lion, so the only difference was the iMac versus Macbook Pro.

I just tried this, no luck...
I connected a different USB cable, still the same problem. Tried both cables with the problematic hard drive on two different computers, still the same problem.
At this point I assume I'll probably need professional help in saving the files, thanks for the assistance.

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:
- Startup Utility: Can see the external in there.
- External shows up on desktop with Windows 7
- External shows up in disk utility
- Windows shows up in startup menu with holding down Option.
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.
Anyone have any possible solutions into getting this to work?

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.

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
via usb and it would not work. I connected the apple external optical drive to my two other mac mini's and it works on both of them. Any reason why the external optical drive would not work on a macbookpro? If anyone has suggestions I would be most greatfull. Thank you in advance.

Click here and follow the instructions.
(77810)

Buying an external hard drive that works on both!

I am looking to buy and external hard drive that can be accessed by my pc and mac book pro. Using mac drive or the like is not an option. This is because I am looking to go over to a mac full time. At we have a windows network. The techies won't install mac drive, so I need one that works on both.
Do they exist?
I had bought a fujitsu. Formatted it on the macbook and doesn't work on the school network. Is there anything I can do with that so it can be accessed by both?

I use Mac OS X (10.6) as my primary OS with Windows 7 under Boot Camp for games. Pretty much any USB drive will do, I have WD Elements 500GB 3.5in one partitioned approximately 300/200 between HFS (the partition scheme for Mac OS) and NTFS. This allows me to do my Time Machine backups and still have a usable amount of extra storage for windows. Under Snow Leopard I can read both partitions from windows, no problem, but beware, in my experience, Mac OS won't see the windows partition on the external drive if you're using one of the partitions for Time Machine.
Hope this helps,
lambda.

Does anyone have a USB powered external hard drive that works?

I bought a really slick USB powered hard drive to take with me when I travel. The whole reason for purchase is to have it power off the laptop. It works on all the Windows machines, but my Mac doesn't even know the drive exists unless I first plug it into a powered USB hub. If I plug it directly into the USB port on the laptop, nada-zip-zilch.
This doesn't fit the plan I had.
Any help? Anyone need a slick little hard drive? 8-)
Kittie

Hi Kitty, I have a lacie porsche designed drive that works with out a hub, but it needs to use two usb ports to mount on the mac. not ideal but portable enough for me

'Apple External Optical Drive' stopped working

I'm trying to install Windows XP on a Macbook Air. I successfully installed the OS using the USB Superdive. I then inserted my Leopard disk and installed Bootcamp 3.0. After the reboot I can no longer use the external drive. When I look in device manager the show that USB device as in error. I have tried reboots, un-installing the device, scanning for hardware changes, etc.
Does any one have a clue how to get the external drive working again within Windows XP on my bootcamp installation?

The error code was 10 as I recall. I'll look again in a minute (re-install boot camp) what I did find was if I uninstalled the Apple 'ODD' driver from the system the drive was immediately available again and worked fine. I was even able to eject the disc. However, I can't insert a new dis in that state. When you try to push the new one in the drive is in a state where it is still 'pushing out' and wont take it. If I reboot I can then use another disc, but again once ejected I can't use it.
I can get my software installed this way I guess, with lots of reboots. But with Apple's driver in place it does not work at all.
Once I get a few programs installed I'll re-apple Apple's driver and see what I end up with.

I have a mid 2007 iMac and the internal superdrive audio cd won't play, the DVD works. Can I purchase an external cd drive that will work with my iMac?

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Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Any external optical drive will work with your Mac. If you want an Apple USB SuperDrive, see > http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/02/use-the-macbook-air-superdrive-with-any-almost-ma c/
The best option is to take the Mac to an Apple Store and get the Mac's SuperDrive repaired

Burn in itunes using external optical drive imac 2009

My Matsushita optical drive (2009 iMac) no longer works. Is there an external optical drive that I can purchase for burning music CD's?. I already have Maverick, but I believe the operating system is not the problem. The external optical drive has to be compatible with hardware that already has an internal (non-functioning) drive.

I have a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-XD09.
It's worked on systems with or without optical drives for me since 2009.
It was $69 at Bestbuy.
It has a USB/Power combo cable that uses TWO USB ports, but I got a 5v AC adapter for $4.99 and now it only needs one USB port to function. I've burned with it under 10.8.4, 10.8.5 and 10.9.0.
They've upgraded it since I got mine (Link here) so it can burn Blu-Ray now

External optical drive with new imac 27"

Does anyone know if the Apple external optical drive will work with the new (skinny) iMac 27" computer? I didn't see that listed as a supported device on the Apple site, only laptops. Seems like it should, but then again, maybe it doesn't.

Yes look at the System Requirement at > Apple USB SuperDrive - Apple Store (U.S.)
Although personally I'd go for a Tray Loading External Optical Drive over any USB SuperDrive, because they are faster and more reliable.
I'm happily using an > GE24LU20 with my old and new Mac's.
Other good choice's include the > OWC Optical Drive Solutions and the > LaCie - LightScribe
Note: Most after market Optical Drives will work with the Mac's, but for full compatibility it's a good idea to check the spec's and make sure that it is MAC OS X compatible.

Thunderbolt 2 external hard drive not working with Macbook Pro (early 2011)

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and I hope you guys can help me with this:
I've recently bought an external hard drive that works on Thunderbolt 2 (LaCie d2 3TB). When I connect the new drive to my Macbook Pro through the thunderbolt port, the drive isn't recognized. However, the drive works fine through a USB connection.
I thought that Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 are compatible, however this doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe it's because the OS X / driver / firmware version that I'm working on that is not updated? I work on an early 2011 Macbook Pro: OS X Version 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).
Thank you very much for your help!
Daniel

Hi danielsh6,
I recently bought the new Lacie Thunderbolt 2 D2 3TB and I had the same problem as you, i have a macbook pro early 2011, those support thunderbolt but many times there is a bug that doesn't let you connect any thunderbolt drives to your computer. The solution I found was installing this update:
Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.0
Before doing this I would recommend you updating to mountain lion (not yosemite yet as there is still some glitches and more on preview's macbook pro's).
Hope this helped!
Forest

External DVD drive not working with Lombard G3 333

I have an external DVD drive that worked when I had 10.4, but had to reformat HD and now only have 10.3.9, and now the DVD drive does not work with DVDs, it will work with CDs and CDR media, but not with DVD media. My Lombard did not come with DVD originally and I am using a PC Card (Macintosh PowerBook DVD-Video PC Card For PowerBook G3 Series) and it worked before with 10.4, but not with 10.3, any ideas? Also have tried with 9.x, no go either. Any help would be appreciated.
Also, would it be difficult to add a DVD logic board to my Lombard?
Joey

xamdu,
I am reading and replying to this post after first replying to your other post, so a few of my previous comments are redundant.
Regarding the FireWire(?) USB 2.0(?) DVD drive: It is possible Tiger supported your DVD drive but Panther does not. I would give PatchBurn for Panther a try:
http://patchburn.de/download.html
If the above is unsuccessful, take a look at this workaround:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040330171655882
You can swap logic boards but it does require a lot of disassembly.
Since no version of OSX supports Apple DVD Player, I am assuming you have a third-party player like VLC installed to watch movies. If this is the case, the DVD Decoder PC card is not necessary. If booted to 9.x, you of course will need the decoder PC card but I did not know 9.x's Apple DVD Player supported external drives.

Can the apple external disc drive that I just got for my air also work with my late 2007 macbook pro? The internal disc drive broke after apple care expired, natch.

Can the apple external disc drive that I just got for my air also work with my late 2007 macbook pro? The internal disc drive broke after apple care expired, natch.

No, sorry. it won't work with the 2007 MBP. You can replace the optical drive yourself - just go shopping at OWC.
Good luck,
Clinton

Does the time capsule work as an external hard drive that you can access from multiple lapttops

I have a mac desktop, a macbook and a pc laptop. I also purchased the time capsule. Will that functional as an external hard drive that I can use to save a share documents between. Trying to figure out the best way to work on documents between devices. new to max and trying to make the full switch but still working with toshiba laptop for a while too.
Any help is appreciated.

Hello jhettenhausen,
Yes, it can function as an external drive for all the devices. As for Windows, you just need to make sure that
it is Windows Professional or XP, as they support mapped network drives. Windows 7 Home Premium doesn't is not capable of mapping network drives. At home, I have a ubuntu laptop, Windows 7 Profesional laptop, and Macbook Pro and they all backup to the Time Capsule 1 TB. Hope this helps!!
Best Regards,
freesparks

I have 2 MacBooks at home that back-up to a Time Capsule. I'd like to buy an external Thunderbolt drive at work to have as an additional back-up. Will Time-Machine support autobackups to 2 different devices?

I have 2 MacBooks (1 Air and 1 Pro) at home that back-up to a Time Capsule. I'd like to buy an external Thunderbolt drive at work to have as an additional back-up (so that were there to be a fire/water damage/etc) I would not lose both the computer and the backup.
Will Time-Machine support autobackups to 2 different devices?
I'd like for it to be able to backup to an external Thunderbolt drive attached to my thunderbolt display when I dock the MacBook Air to it.
Does anyone know if this will occur automatically, or if I will have to manually select backup disk?
thanks

Yes, with Mountain Lion you can do this, but I will leave the explanation to Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini:
34. "Rotating" Time Machine backup disks

External optical drive that works?

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