Looking to Get an External USB DVD Burner...Will this one Work?

I burn a lot of music to CD (demos for my music that I send out every few months). I've heard a lot of bad things about the internal DVD burner on MacBooks going shot, and I've heard it's an expensive fix.
Since mine is still working totally fine, I wanted to preserve it by purchasing an external USB DVD burner for my heavy music burning.
This Rosewill unit over at Newegg seems to get a lot of positive reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16827190020
However, there's no mention of OSX compatibility (there's not really a mention of it for any of ther burners they sell). I wrote Newegg, and they said that they cannot comment on compatibility. I wrote Rosewill directly, and I'm waiting to hear back.
I've heard that basically any USB burner will work with MacBooks, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any direct experience with any of the Rosewill burners?
Thanks.

For anyone that's interested, I received my external USB burner today. For those that didn't see my original post, I burn a lot of demo music CD to send out everyother month, and I didn't want to wear out my internal burner, because I've heard that replacing them is 1) sort of a rough fix to do on your own, or 2) is pretty expensive to have done by Apple.
I received this Rosewill unit from Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16827190020
Plugged it in, iTunes instantly recognized it, and gave me the choice between the external and internal burners. CD's are burning fine. Now I can use and abuse this external with all my burns, and just replace it for $50 if it ever goes shot, and save my internal for software loading, etc.
In short, if you're looking for a nice, little, inexpensive external burner that works with OSX...definitely check this unit out.

Similar Messages

Getting an External CD/DVD Burner to Work Properly

Hello! This is a little bit of a tricky problem, but hopefully you can help me fix it.
I have a (very old) 15' Macbook Pro which I've upgraded with an SSD and OS X 10.6.8. The only problem I'm currently having is getting an external CD/DVD burner to work correctly.
The CD/DVD drive on the computer itself is broken (it will not load CDs), but it is powered and makes noise when I press the eject button. As such, I went out and bought this external drive.
The drive works properly- I was even able to use it to boot from my install CD and use disk utility to create a backup of my computer. CDs/DVDs loaded into it are recognized and work perfectly.
The issue I have is that the unit will not burn CDs. I've tried using both the native iTunes burner and my copy of Toast Titanium to burn CDs, but it never works properly. Whenever I try, the external unit spins up, the progress bar starts moving.... and eventually an error message comes up. Whenever I use Toast I can select the drive to use, but it seems to be automatically overriding whatever I select and trying to get the internal (broken) drive to burn the CD, since the internal drive starts making noise. Additionally, whenever I check the CDs I tried to burn, nothing has actually been done and the CDs still show up as being blank.
My question is- are there any settings in OS X that would disable the internal drive and get the external drive to properly burn CDs? Thanks!

Ah! Yeah, I didn't even see that- thanks for the heads up! Unfortunately, my Macbook only has one USB port on each side, and the cable on the external drive won't reach. I have a USB hub I've been using, but I suspect the unit isn't getting enough power with that on there since it spins up, the disc will mount, and then quickly disappear. I think I'll try and hunt down an extended USB cord or something.
I also contacted Amazon about trying to find a proper DC adapter for the unit, but they couldn't help me at all.

External USB DVD Burner Compatability

I have an ASUS SDRW-08D1S-U that will not work with wodim but does work with cdrdao. Since every GUI uses wodim, this drive is just a pain to use in Linux. Although I think the drive may just be defective because it powers off sometimes for no apparent reason (ruined a few discs like that.)
Anyway, I'm looking for a new drive but I'm having a hard time finding if any given drive works in Linux or not. I was looking at the LG GP08LU30, can anyone confirm if this drive works with wodim or have any other suggestions?

Well you can't exactly run XP on a 300 Mhz Pentium either.
The Lombard dates dates back from the days of the 300 Mhz Pentium. And 10.4.9 running on a Lombard is actually already out of the range of the possible. Read the specs on
http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/
The fact you are running it at all on that machine, is a testament to the brilliance of people who wrote XPostFacto at http://www.macsales.com/
The Lombard does not have built-in Firewire, and therefore can't take advantage of many of the features of 10.4 through 10.4.9. The Lombard was sort of the last of a generation of Macs that came with built-in SCSI, but no built-in Firewire. As Apple went through their transition from 1997 to 2003 to getting all the Macs to most of the hardware features found in today's Macs that support Mac OS X there were several low to midrange models that didn't fit all the categories you find in today's Macs.
The only third party player which may work, and not on all drives is http://www.videolan.org/ 's VLC Client.
Macs are integrated units. Thus while you can upgrade the RAM, and frequently the wireless card, or hard drive, many of the other addons except on the PowerMac/Mac Pro/MacBook Pro/Powerbook lines are not available because most of the features one would need are already included. The iBook and MacBook have no Express/34 slot. The 12" Powerbooks strangely didn't have PCMCIA, but did have DVI and extended desktop capabilities starting with its DVI model.
It pays to take a close look at specs to find out if your model has support for the feature you want:
http://www.info.apple.com/support/applespec.html
Part of the reason for the Mac's stability is that the variables are more known than in the PC world because the specs are so well written.

Logitech external USB DVD reader/burner model LDR-PMD8U2LBK not recognized.

Got a external USB DVD reader/burner Logitech model LDR-PMD8U2LBK.
I plug the device, use the adapter but nothing happens. I tried to boot the computer with the driver plugged in, again, nothing. If I put a DVD in the driver, I hear the machine buffer but on the screen, nothing. Checked all the view options, everything is selected. It doesn't appear in the Disk Utility neither. Tried to open a DVD with VLC Player, to no avail. Checked on Logitech's site, there are no drivers for this driver. The seller told me that it should be compatible with my black macbook, I guess there is still a possibility that it is not...

You shouldn't need drivers for a USB or Firewire connected external device.
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151?viewlocale=en_US
Common fixes for USB device issues (unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070824012114701
 Cheers, Tom

Problems Installing Win7 using External, USB DVD Drive

I have a mid 2010 15" i7 MBP which I upgraded to from 4GB to 8GB RAM courtesy of OWC. I recently upgraded the 500GB 7200RPM HD with a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 and using an OWC Data Doubler, I replaced the DVD SuperDrive with the 500GB Hard Drive.
I used an External USB DVD Drive to install OS X SL On the SSD without issues. Also, I got all my updates and software installed and working without any problems.
I've been running great for about 2 weeks now, so I decided to install Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. I ran Boot Camp Assistant and partitioned the 240GB SSD in half 120/120. Everything went fine with creating the partition. I selected to Install from the Win 7 DVD media in the USB DVD drive and rebooted. I got a grey screen. I turned the computer off and turned it back on. Holding down Option, I selected the Install DVD from the Boot Menu. I then got a screen with the Apple Logo flashing intermittently with a Circle/Cross Hatch. So I can't get the Windows Install to start to save my life. I know the External, USB DVD works since I used it to install OS X and I have no problems using it in OS X. I Know the media works because I tried a test install, without activation in a VMWare Fusion VM.
Any suggestions are appreciated?

So here is the answer. The Firmware on the MacBook Pro only supports installation of OS X from External Media and will not install operating systems from 3rd Parties. I tried to install Windows XP, Win7 Ultimate 32 & 64bit, and Ubuntu 11.04 but no success.
Supposedly, the MacBook Air does support installation of 3rd party operating systems from external media, but I have no way to confirm this.
I ended up reinstalling the internal DVD drive installing Win 7 and Ubuntu on the SSD. Using rEFI, I'm able to triple boot all 3 operating systems. Then removed the drive again and reinstalled the 2nd HD. Everything seems to be working fine.
I'm looking for someone who has experience in Mac EFI Hacking to see if there is a way to enable booting 3rd Party OSes from external media. I'm guessing someone could examine the MBA firmware and figure out how to hack that capability into the MBP.

P67A-GD65 (B3) will not boot with external USB DVD connected.

Damnedest thing... just put the build together last night and this was the biggest issue. If I connect my external Samsung USB DVD RW the system stops booting and only displays (B3) in the bottom right corner of my display. If I remove the USB plug the system boots and operates normally. If I connect it to the USB port after boot the system recognizes it and it works fine. The same issue occurs no matter which USB2/3 port I plug it into. I've banged around the BIOS and cannot see any issues in the boot sequence that would indicate an issue. Anyone else in das same boot?

Quote from: cadhopper on 24-March-11, 07:19:08
I just came to the forum for the same reason. I'm glad you had a thread already going. Mine is a Seagate 1.5T USB 2.0 hard drive and the screen reads 98 in the lower right corner. Hopefully MSI will get this fixed soon. Other than that the new system is running great.
They are working on it. They sent me a BETA BIOS to try out. The BIOS v1.10B3 was dated 3-17-2011 and it nearly bricked my system though. Here is the response I sent to them the other night after a few hours with a massive headache trying to bring my system back up:
Quote
Tried the new BIOS. While it did indeed fix the USB DVD boot issue and let me boot into windows it created a few new issues. After flashing the new BIOS would not recognize my old overclocking profiles from the v1.8 BIOS.. "hole" error. So I manually adjusted all the settings and saved the new settings. I copied them EXACTLY from my previous settings.. I had screenshots which I had printed out as a fool-proof guide. After rebooting I could no longer get into windows. BSOD. If I tried entering the BIOS by tapping the DEL button while booting the system would freeze at the "entering setup...." screen and never progress into the actual BIOS. I unplugged the power, waited a few minutes and held the clear CMOS button on the back panel down for a few seconds. After rebooting I no longer had video output. After much trial and error I ended up having to also unplug my LCD and cycle power on it as well to get video back. But could still bot get into the BIOS by tapping the DEL key during boot. Luckily I have a laptop with all the files on it and I was able to finally re-flash back to the v1.8 BIOS from a USB drive. I'm not sure what exactly you changed.. but I don't think this new BIOS version should leave BETA status.
To their credit they promptly responded the next AM:
Quote
There were some changes to the CPU voltage, so your overclock settings may not work properly. We are still working on a 1.A release version. It will be updated to our website soon. http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-GD65--B3-.html#/?div=BIOS
I only wish they had informed me of the changes to the CPU voltage up front or included a change log so I could have made an informed decision as to whether or not I wanted to try the BETA BIOS. I was under the impression (mistakenly) that it simply addressed the USB DVD issue. I'll wait for the new release BIOS. I can live without the external USB DVD being plugged in at boot. Bricking my MOBO and having to RMA would be a far less desirable outcome. :p That said.. I'd still recommend this MOBO. It has relatively few issues and MSI support is responsive so far.

IMac won't recognize external CD/DVD burner

I have an iMac, Intel Core 2 Duo, OS 10.4.11. Five months ago, I purchased an external CD/DVD burner (Pioneer DVR-218L) in a multiple interface case from OtherWorldComputing. Everything worked flawlessly... I could burn iTunes CDs on that drive, using Toast I could copy DVDs from my internal drive to the external... life was good.
No longer. The computer simply doesn't recognize that there is an external burner attached.
I'm running it through with Firewire 400 cables, but I also tried Firewire 800 and USB2, with no luck. I've tried resetting the PRAM, and for one brief moment, thought I had licked the problem. I had a blank disk in the external drive and got a message saying that there was an unreadable disk, so I ejected it. Hooray! I put in a CD, which was recognized, momentarily. But when I went to copy those files to the computer, it was no longer recognized. And now I'm back where I was.
Very frustrating, because it had worked so smoothly and now it's not. I've spent much of today reading various message boards seeking an answer. Any suggestions?
David

Something sporadic like that sounds more like a problem with the drive than with the computer or interface. You've tried several interfaces (FW, USB) which means it isn't just a bad port on the computer. If it was a bad bit of software I wouldn't expect the drive to briefly reappear like that.
When the drive is plugged in, what does Apple System Profiler say about Firewire or USB devices? It could be the enclosure is working but the drive itself is bad.
Have you phoned OWC about this? They have pretty good technical support and one reason for going with them is their reputation for standing behind their goods.

Since my external CD, DVD burner is going, which second internal super drive to buy for my MacPro?

Since my external CD, DVD burner is going, which second internal super drive should I buy for my MacPro?
Thank you for your time and patients.
W.W.

Apple doesn't support Blu-ray
<http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/steve-jobs-calls-blu-ray-a-bag-of-hurt/>
and (from hardmac.com):
"Steve did not change his mind and still think that BD DRM are just inacceptable for mass and consumer market due to restrictions that make advantages look like non competitive. He admitted that retrospectively he feels ashamed that Apple’s name is associated to Blu-ray, as he thinks that BD supporting associations look today more like M*fia than anything else. Concerning authoring on Blu-ray, it seems impossible to provide software supporting such format for consumer market. In addition to DRM, here it is the cost of licenses that slow down the entire process; one would have to start paying 3,000 USD to AACS, then 80,000 USD to Sony, 40,000 USD to Sonic, etc. HE considers the Blu-ray as a “bag of hurt”."
(* = a The full M word is rejected.)
but there is player software
MCE includes a trial version of Blu-ray player software with their drive. (It's out of date but will update to the current version.)
<http://www.macblurayplayer.com>
It works fine on my Mac Pro. Enable Deinterlacing and set it to Auto in its Video preference.

External CD/DVD Burner Recommendation

Just purchased a 27" iMac Quad. I'm looking for an external CD/DVD Burner because the built in Super Drive will be hard to access in my space. I'm mainly looking for it to be compatible with iDVD and iTunes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Moof219
Welcome to Apple Discussions
There's a great selection at > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
Dennis

Which external firewire DVD burner?

Whci external firewire DVD burners work best with the iMac G5?
Are there any external firewire DVD burners that do NOT work with an iMac G5?
Thanks for any info.

I have not seen a list, but on the iDVD page, it tells that it is now compatible with third-party DVD burners. I assume that any Mac-compatible exernal burner is now supported.
There is a discussion in the iDVD forum and another here that give a few that users have installed and had work with iDVD '06.
If I was in the market for a burner, I would get one with LightScribe. A friend of mine has one for his PC and it makes very nice labels. They really are "silkscreen-quality" as they advertise. As far as I know, LaCie is the only one who makes a Mac-compatible LightScribe DVD burner.

Cannot boot to Windows disc from external USB DVD drive.

I have a MacBook Pro 17" Early 2011 8,3. I have tried to use bootcamp to install Windows 7 from a external USB DVD drive. All I get, like many people, is a black screen with a blinking cursor, as if it never makes it to boot. I tried restarting to the OS selection for holding alt, and tried the DVD again, did not work.
I saw a few posts claiming that this didn't work on some models of Mac because of a EFI problem that would not allow booting from a external USB, which is really stupid because it would seems some models can... And MacBook airs can... Can someone please confirm this for me? Has anyone found a resolution?
If not, APPLE PLEASE FIX THIS.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Yes the MBP is currently running Tiger, I want to flatten this with a fresh install of Leopard. I can view the install DVD when in Tiger currently.
I haven't tried what you have suggested, but I have seen various posts suggesting this approach. I've also seen several posts explain how to create a partition on an external firewire Harddrive and this seems to have worked for various people.
This would however mean that I didn't really need the external Lacie drive at all, as I've got access to my G5s DVD drive over the network. The more I search on this, the more convinced I am the USB drive was a bad idea.
Once again thank for the response.

HP external USB DVD Drive not recognized by computer.

Have HP Mini-210 and HP external USB DVD Drive. When attached, the DVD drive lights and spins but computor will not recognize it. When checking Device Manager, it says no driver for DVD drive.. I try to reinstall the driver, and then it says I have the best one already. Device Manager continues to indicate that this drive has a problem. Tried to download a driver from HP support and it was not available on line.
Copied install disk that came with drive thru dropbox cloud to move it onto the computor. Was able to install the programs but still have no driver and unable to use DVD drive.

Try this wayne
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929461/en-us

My laptop won't boot form external USB DVD drive

Hi, I have HP pavillion dv6748us. My internal dvd drive is not recognized, cannot access and not listed in device manager & window explorer. I need to reboot from the external dvd but don't see the option listed in BIOS. Below is the sequence listed in my BIOS. I have recovery disk and would like to know if and how to add external USB DVD DRIVE into to BIOS.
Your help is greatly appreicated!
(1) ATAPI CD/DVD ROM DRIVE
(2) USB HARD DRIVE
(3) NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVE
(4) USB DISKETTE ON KEY
(5) USB FLOPPY
(6) NETWORK ADAPTOR

Have you tried 2? The BIOS may see the DVD drive as a mass storage device and not distinguish between a hard drive and an optical drive.

External cd dvd burner drive

Would i be able to use a external cd drive on my mac? also will it work if i boot up in windows xp would windows recognize it also thanks

JC519 wrote:
Would i be able to use a external cd drive on my mac? also will it work if i boot up in windows xp would windows recognize it also thanks
Yes, you can use an External CD drive on your Mac. Yes, Windows will also recognize the same external drive. I use an External FireWire DVD burner because it is faster than the iMac's internal slot load drive. You can also use the external CD/DVD drive to install Windows using Boot Camp, as noted in the Boot Camp Assistant instructions.

External CD/DVD burner sends OSX into 100% CPU use, cddafs.util file

Hi,
I have a LaCie external CD/DVD burner (301484U) which I use a replacement for the SuperDrive that died in my Powerbook 15" DL, connecting by Firewire. Lately, instead of mounting CDs, it causes the cddafs.util file to take up whatever is left of my CPU sending it into 100% use. Ejecting using F12 and using the button on the drive to eject no longer work. I have to turn the drive off and turn it back on again to eject the disc.
I will ask LaCie too but wanted to see what anyone might say here as well. The drive is relatively new, bought in September. Sometimes CDs mount, sometimes they don't.
I'd be happy to supply more info but am not sure what is needed at this point.
One weird thing happened that might be related. Yesterday I was recording a record to be made into a CD using Final Vinyl and in the middle of the recording it gave me a blue screen with two sets of vertical black lines, freezing the machine. I rebooted and all was fine. I ran Disk Utility and other than a few permissions needing to be fixed, all was well. Nothing interesting in the trash upon restart.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers,
John L
Message was edited by: John Lippincott

It works in the other account so it should be a file in my normal account right? (I misinterpreted what you meant by "doing it".) If it didn't work in the other account then it would be a hardware problem, possibly the power supply, right?
I'll move the CD Info.cidb file to the Desktop as you suggest. I hope that file isn't too corrupt. Over the years I've lost what CDs I've played from problems with that file. (I have actually kept track of most every CD since my first Mac, with the exception of what I've lost from crashes. I use a program or two to read it. A good one is iCDC for example.)

Looking to Get an External USB DVD Burner...Will this one Work?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for