Mavericks Broke My Optical Drive

Good day all!
I upgraded to Mavericks 10.9.4 and it has slowed down my system in general and I can no longer burn CD/DVD. The optical drive will read/play commercial DVD movies, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 Retail Mid 2009 Intern install disk, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Retail (PCrly 2010) only. The optical drive WILL NOT read Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4 Retail Mid 2008 Intern or MAC OS X 10.6.1 Update Mid 09 Intern or commercial music CDs. All OS X disks were sent to me from Apple Care after giving them my serial number after informing them that Mavericks IMO broke my optical drive. I also tried all the troubleshooting tutorials including cleaning the optical drive with a lens cleaner disk.
So my question is can I boot my machine using (Control-R) go into Disk Utility erase the hard drive completely including the Mavericks Recovery Partition and load any of the above Leopard or Snow Leopard OS X disk? I have already backup and copied all my Apps including iLife. I don't like Mavericks except for the new Safari otherwise my system was much faster before the upgrade. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
My iMac Specs:Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.29f1
Serial Number (system): QP8231J8ZE5
Hardware UUID: 83A932B7-998A-5FE5-B2E9-929793EB747F
System Software Overview:
System Version: OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)
Kernel Version: Darwin 13.3.0
Boot Volume: Hard Drive
Boot Mode: Normal
Computer Name: My Mac
User Name: Willard (testadmin)
Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
Time since boot: 1:03
ATA Bus:
MAT****ADVD-R UJ-875:
Model: MAT****ADVD-R UJ-875
Revision: DB09
Serial Number: fE092882
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal
Low Power Polling: Yes
Power Off: No

"Would strongly suggest you install, at least, 4 GBs of RAM.
Your year and model iMac can take a maximum total of 6 GBs of RAM. Install the full 6 GBs of RAM if you can afford to do so."
iMac (Early 2008): Memory specifications
Learn what kinds of memory you can use with following iMac (Early 2008) computer.
The iMac (Early 2008) computer has two SDRAM slots in the bottom of the computer and comes with at least 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM installed into one slot.
The maximum amount of RAM you can install in the computer is 4 GB (a 2 GB SO-DIMM in each slot).
You can use any Small-Outline dual inline memory modules (SO-DIMMS) that meets all of these criteria:
PC2-6400
Unbuffered
Nonparity
200-pin
800 MHz
DDR2 SDRAM
You can use RAM module sizes of 1 GB or 2 GB in each slot.
DIMMs with any of the following features are not supported in the iMac (Early 2008) computer:
Registers or buffers
PLLs
ECC
Parity
EDO RAM
Always follow the upgrade instructions for memory installation as written. Never attempt to remove screws that are not listed in the upgrade instructions.
Does Apple always mislead their users? What am I missing here?

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I have just updated my OSX to Mavericks on my Macbook Pro, late I know but I was trying to avoid any software conflicts. My Optical Drive can't burn either CD or DVD. It plays them and recognises them but won't burn. Error message:
The disc can’t be burned, because the device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media.
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V

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IMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) - CPU and Optical drive fans rev up to 4000 rpm

Hello,
I just want to share my experience with my rather new Imac
I bought this Imac last April and I had the fans roaring after 2 weeks of light usage. I followed instructions like resetting the SMC, unplugging the imac and restarted.
However, I started installing other software like Paragon NTFS, VLC, Firefox and also Istat nano. This happened on a more regular basis and istat nano was showing up fairly normal temperatures - an average of 50° C and I had the CPU fan at 3800 and the Optical drive fan at 4200 rpms. According to apple support, at this temperature fans should be running at factory level or a bit more. Even when I stop all activity, the fans keep up and does not stop even after a couple of hours of inactivity on the imac. Apple support recommended that I reinstall macos on a new partition and run tests and during the tests, the only software I installed was istat nano and still got the fans going with the same result - required a shutdown to bring fans at normal levels and yet average temperatures were around 50 - 55 °C.
Eventually got apple to replace heat sensors - this did not help - still got the same unwanted result, fans reving up to 4000 rpm and not stopping and all that without going above 60°C. I was at the stage to demand a complete replacement but decided to give it another couple of weeks testing.
Last test, a complete reinstall of the OS and this time, without any other software apart from standard software delivered with the mac. Ran a few things like importing over 10,000 pictures with iphoto and some other stuff to increase activity - overall CPU usage was at 5% idle for a good few hours and could not reproduce the problem (istat nano was not installed, so I could not monitor temperature). I started installing Paragon NTFS for mac and ran the same scenarios and still no fans going crazy - putting my hands over the top of the imac, can feel a slight breeze...).
Installed other software such as VLC and Firefox 5.0 but still no istat nano and same high activity, import high volumes in iphoto and also did an empty secure thrash to increase load. CPU usage was to 95 again and still fans are behaving properly.
One thing that comes to my mind with istat nano is that, when the fans get going, the ambient value change to -140 - I do not want to rush into any conclusion but is it possible that there is some interference between istat nano and those new sensors that have come in with Imac mid 2010 (from reading mac forums, Apple has added a new ambient sensor..). Because all the time I have been reinstalling the OS, I have always installed istat nano to monitor temperature and fan speed and I always got this issue. But since yesterday, I have installed clean OS, tested, added some 3rd party software but still no istat nano and I canot reproduce the issue. I have been using the same scenario during all this testing - very high import with iphoto, viewing a film, empty secure thrash, enough to use up to 95% CPU.
Has anyone experienced this? I hope this is the cause of my problem because this mac is making my life easier at home compared to previous PC and also, I want to know that my hardware is not at fault...
I will keep you posted if I get the issue again - could be tempted to install istat nano and run the tests to see if the fans will rev up after this but not sure I want to go through another 4 days of just doing this...
regards
Philip

Hey nycbigapple2,
I'd run through the recommended troubleshooting steps for when your iMac runs slowly here:
OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
Take care,
Delgadoh

MacBook Pro Repeatedly Loads Purple & Teal Stripe, Gray, Light Blue, Bright Blue and Bright Blue Stripe Screens Instead of OS after Optical Drive Replacement by Apple (PICTURES INCLUDED)

17 inch March 26-29 (order date – shipping date) 2011 MacBook Pro, 256GB Solid State Drive, 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, 1 processer, 4 Cores, 256 KB L2 Cache per core, 8 MB L3 Cache, 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB), AMD Radeon HD 6750M Video Card, Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 512 MB total of VRAM. 110 GBs of free/unused disk space remaining.
Full Specs are in subsequent post.
The issues described in the title continue even after I’ve reinstalled the operating system twice (Snow Leopard) and installed Mavericks (which is working fine and even faster). I’ve tried many commands to repair this.
If anyone has experienced any of the symptoms above or below, your advice and response will be much appreciated as well as marked. These are the details:
My Early 2011 MacBook Pro has had the typical blue screens, screen freezes and graphics issues since I bought it about three years ago but nothing like this and NEVER any load issues until about a month ago. That was when my superdrive replacement was put in.
Since then my MacBook Pro will go into hard freezes or kernel panics. Then I’ll have to power it down manually and power it up manually. It’ll then refuse to load the OS until after multiple tries. It started out just 2 or 3, then 4 or 5, then 6-12, then 20. Now it takes over 30 boots to load the OS. These boot issues also occur even if it doesn’t freeze, i.e.: when I shut it down or restart it naturally (via the Apple menu, etc.).
95% of the time it’ll load to a gray screen instead of the OS. 4% of the time it’ll load to a light blue screen. Then there are the others: the first time this happened it loaded to the striped purple and teal screen shown in the picture. This happened the next four times then intermittently for about 5 or so more times.
It also loaded gray flickering screens. Flickering screens also occurred right before it froze and had to be manually powered down and up. Then it began to load regular gray and light blue screens and all flickering screens stopped. And then bright blue screens a couple times intermittently for a few days, sometimes with lines. Sometimes it’ll load to a blank/black screen as well. I’d reset the NVRAM and SMC but it still continued, happening multiple times a day, each time taking more and more hard shut downs and hard power ons to finally load the OS.
Until I installed Mavericks, every time it finally loaded the OS Finder began indexing. After Mavericks this has occurred 95% of the time.
After talking to Apple Support they had me do a NVRAM and SMC reset again over the phone. The MacBook Pro refused to load the entire time we were on the phone. After the call it got worse. It froze over 6 times that day and at worse took over 30 boots to load the OS.
I finally had time to deal with it the next day when it froze again. After over 25 boots it loaded and I put in the Snow Leopard OS dvd and ran Disk Utility. I verified the hard drive and it said it was fine. Repaired the disk anyway and it gave this message at the end:
“Updating boot support partitions for volume required”.
Next I tried to start in safe mode and it just hung up for hours. Then started up in single mode and it loaded the OS. It then loaded normally for three times in a row. I reinstalled Snow Leopard. Everything loaded normally. I waited an hour or so and then I downloaded Mavericks. 5 or so hours later Mavericks was installed. Everything hardware wise was fine for a day and all software issues were easily fixable incompatibilities. My Mac was even faster with Mavericks. However, Photoshop did give a perhaps relevant message:
“Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver, and has temporarily disabled GPU enhancements. Check the video card manufacturer’s website for the latest software.
GPU enhancements can be enabled in the Performance panel of Preferences.”
(I have OpenGL enabled in Photoshop and it was already checked when this error occurred).
Two days ago I went to Disk Utility to repair permissions while logged in to a non-admin account. Verified and repaired the disk, then verified permissions. Everything fine. After repairing permissions however, it gave a weird error box:
"Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
The box stayed “stuck” in the Disk Utility window. My MacBook Pro then failed to do anything. I manually powered it down and up. It loaded to a gray screen with the error message box again: "Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
It then refused to load anything else but this message box on a gray screen even after rebooting it multiple times in safe, verbose and single modes and after resetting the NVRAM and SMC. I went online with an iPad and entered in the error and got some advice. I tried to run fsck and erase the /var/folders/ via single user mode but it still loaded to a gray screen with the error message. I just decided to skip to the end and Cmd-R loaded into recovery mode and reinstalled Mavericks again. That worked: the message has not appeared since.
Some people have said this error is related to a hard drive cable failure. I know that this cable was tampered with during the optical drive replacement procedures because I watched them do it.
Everything was fine for a day. Then yesterday my MacBook Pro froze while trying to open a VLC file. It took 12 boots to load the OS. I tried single mode once and verbose mode once. 10 times it loaded to gray screens, even in those mode. A Safe boot lead to a bright blue screen. Finally reset the SMC and it loaded on the 12th time.
Just five hours ago the same thing happened except it took over 30 boots to load the OS. Single, verbose and normal boots, NVRAM and SMC resets lead to gray screens. Safe boots lead to bright blue screens with and without lines (see pictures). Finally loaded on a normal boot.
I know I should have tried safe booting, verbose, single and recovery modes, disk utility, fsck and other command methods earlier this month but in the end, these methods have not solved the problem anymore than resetting the NVRAM or SMC.
There seems to be conclusive evidence that it’s a hardware problem, stemming from last month, the FIRST AND ONLY time my MacBook Pro was opened up. Maybe it’s the hard drive cable, but it could also be the graphics card and/or logic board (something that’s always been defective on this MacBook Pro, in my opinion). Many early 2011 MacBook Pro owners have given evidence to the latter possibility online.
The first time it started it seemed to stem from me using iPhoto and Photoshop a lot. I had both running continuously for about two weeks. This is another reason for suspecting the graphics card/logic board is at fault (in addition to three years of screen/graphics glitches). And since the card is soldered to the board and the board connected to the cable...I also have serious battery draining issues, something else that got bad after the Apple Superdrive repair. And the battery is connected to the board...
Also, since downloading Mavericks, windows from every app get blurry/fuzzy when I scroll or zoom in. I have read that this is happening to a lot of folks though for various reasons.
I guess it could always be the hard drive. I just don’t know. I’m taking it in to Apple, but can't right away because it’s not local. I know they’ll be able to run a test on the hard drive. I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem (especially the purple and teal striped screen) before they start poking around, possibly creating another problem that goes beyond my Apple Care Plan allotment.

SPECS OF MY MACBOOK PRO:
Model Name: March 26-29 2011 MacBook Pro (order date – shipping date)
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,3
Processor Name: Quad-core Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2.3 GHz
Number of Processors:    1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB)
HARD DRIVE: 256GB Solid State Drive
DISPLAY: MBP 17" HR Antiglare WS Display
AMD Radeon HD 6750M:
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M
Type:    GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width:    x8
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6741
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0170L-573
gMux Version: 1.9.24
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.573
Intel HD Graphics 3000:
Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Type:    GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0126
Revision ID: 0x0009
gMux Version: 1.9.24
Displays
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number:    C01111403GLDGKMAE
Manufacturer: DP
Device Name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:    0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0406
Hardware Revision: 0001
Cell Revision:    1102
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 4583
Fully Charged:    No
Charging: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 7765
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 276
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA):    -4487
Voltage (mV): 11306
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake on LAN: No
Current Power Source: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    5
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Reduce Brightness: Yes
Hardware Configuration:
UPS Installed:    No
AC Charger Information:
Connected: Yes
ID:    0x0100
Wattage (W): 85
Revision: 0x0000
Family: 0x0085
Serial Number:    0x007ad8c5
Charging: Yes
Current operating system: 10.9.3 (Mavericks) ; Installed on 6/21/14
Previous operating system: 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard); Installed 4/4/11
        Reinstalled multiple times. Last reinstall: 6/21/14

Adata sp900 sdd 128-GB ssd, optibay optical drive to replace superdrive, and 16 GB upgrade for macbook pro mid 2012.

Hello everyone,
Thank you in advanced for all of the support. This is my first post to the communities. I just bought a 2.9 GHz core 17 processor MacBook pro mid 2012 13" with 8 GB of RAM and I am in the process of upgrading it. When I bought the MacBook pro originally, I was told that I would never mac out the performance because I do not do a lot of photo/video editing. This is true, but I am an academic researcher and tend to multitask often, having 20+ safari tabs open, SPSS (a statistical program), full screen mail app, full screen calendar app, and preview, iTunes open all at the same time. I often get slow performance and error messages that state low memory. This is why I am interested in upgrading the laptop. I am getting ready to go to medical school and I want to have a powerful laptop. I also want to future proof because I plan on having a dual boot system to mac OS and windows OS.
Because I know I will be maxing out the performance of the computer, I want to take full advantage of upgrades, especially now because the cost of the components is reasonable at the moment. The following are the proposed upgrades:
1. Upgrade my current 8-GB ram (2x4-GB) with 16-GB ram (2x8-GB). I plan on using crucial RAM.
Crucial 16-GB Ram: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LTBJFW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&coli d=2B1KHELSPJPNN&coliid=IYGJWGQDH8LV0&psc=1
2. Replace my optical drive with a hard drive. I will place a SSD into my current hard drive position and then install my current HDD into the optical drive bay with the optibay optical drive caddy. I am doing this because I plan to use the SSD as the boot drive and my current HDD as my backup and files drive. I am putting the SDD into the HDD because I have read it is better to place it in this bay for performance. I will put the other HDD in the optical drive because the performance of that one will not be as important.
Adata SSD: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LTBJFW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&coli d=2B1KHELSPJPNN&coliid=IYGJWGQDH8LV0&psc=1
Optibay Optical Drive Caddy: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058AH2US/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&coli d=2B1KHELSPJPNN&coliid=I3GI8MGWAKXY79
My questions:
1. Is the listed RAM appropriate and sufficient for my MacBook pro?
2. Is the listed SSD appropriate and sufficient for my MacBook pro?
3. Is the listed Optical Drive Caddy appropriate and sufficient for my MacBook pro?
4. Is there still a firmware problem that does not allow for SATA 3 (6Gb/s) support in the optical drive?
5. Would it be easier to format the new SSD outside of the MacBook using a SATA to USB adapter?
6. Does working on any of the listed components void my AppleCare (I plan on keeping all of the original components so I can replace them, if I ever need to see apple support)?
7. What is the best way to put Mavericks onto the SSD to make this my boot drive?
8. What is the best way to make all of my files remain on the HDD, but link to the SSD with the operating system?
9. Has anyone ever successfully upgraded to 16-GB RAM and used their optical drive for a secondary hard drive?
10. Is there any miscellaneous advice for this project?
Please feel free to give partial answers. I know this was a lot of information, but I wanted to be efficient in my post. I am very appreciative of everyone who will contribute.
Thank you!

rmichaud91 wrote:
Hello everyone,
I just bought a 2.9 GHz core 17 processor MacBook pro mid 2012 13" with 8 GB of RAM
16 GB of RAM is the best you can do.
The optibay HD will null and void your warranty.

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

I removed my optical drive because i added an ssd hard drive. when i plug in the dvd to usb it will not play from the macbooks dvd program. the error message is there was an initialization error, a valid drive could not be found.

I can go into disk utility and see the optical drive and mount what ever cd is in the drive and quicktime will play it. but i would like to have the dvd program recognize the optical drive and open what ever is in it.

Freakin amazing! I installed a new 1TB Samsung SSD in my main hard drive slot and moved my old hard drive into my DVD slot and moved my DVD to an external DVD case and it would never work with movies, only software disks. I have Late 2011 Macbook Pro running Mavericks with 1TB Samsung SSD and a 512GB HDD in the DVD slot with my DVD in an OWC external DVD case.
I tried this trick but at first, this did not work because OxED was saving the new file as a text file and not a unix file. I was perplexed until I read the comments below the article and found the tip to use Terminal to change the saved file to a Unix file. I have never used Terminal before and I had no clue what I was doing, but I just followed the steps to a T and it worked. It took two tries with Terminal.
The comment mentioned "Code:" so I typed that along with the rest and it didn't work. I tried it again and this time just typed
chmod +x (with a space after the x) then dragged and dropped the saved dvd file from my Desktop into Terminal and hit enter. Worked great. Thank you. I have my DVD player back.
I also had to play around with some permissions and I had to remove the original file completely from the "A" folder, before I dropped the new file back in.
Took a little work, but I am back up and running. Thanks to all who contributed to this and yet OWC definitely needs to have all this in their manual or even provide a disk or software download that does this automatically.
Here is the trick: http://macenstein.com/default/2011/07/how-to-get-your-external-super-drive-worki ng-in-lion/
Be sure that the new file saves as a Unix file. If it doesnt save as Unix, you will need to:
Open Terminal.
Type: chmod +x
…with a space at the end (and do NOT press enter yet).
Then, drag the saved file you want to change from whereever it is saved and drop it on top of the Terminal window. The file path and filename should automatically fill in (and you should ensure that there’s a space between “+x” and the file path).
Press enter.

Hard drive will not mount after optical drive upgrade

I recently performed an optical drive install. Had to remove the hard drive bays (I use three hard drives - Luckily, 2 run OSX).
I carefully removed all three drive bays and the empty bay. When I inserted the drives into the computer I had changed the position, swapping one OSX drive with a different one and reversing the drive bays. On restart, the computer started on the drive I had not selected for startup and I received an error message stating the other drive could not mount and it gave three options (Initialize - Ignore and Eject).
I can see the drive in Disk Utility and repair the permissions (it's also located in the System Profile).
I tried a few things I read in the community using various Terminal commands but was unsuccessful.
(Let me point out that I recently switched from a PPC G5 to MacPro and swapped the drives from PPC into MacPro and all has been fine until I removed changed their positions in the bays)
Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated.

I would recommend you reformat your drives that you brought over, and if possible put in a Firewie case.
Swapping drives will normally not matter but you should use Startup Disk to reset the default after using Option key the first time.
Putting in an optical device shouldn't require removing the drives to get the cage loose and let you put in a 2nd superdirve.
G5 used APM partition map, Intel Macs use EFI and requie GPT/GUID.
A drive with just data should not matter but that is not fool-proof either.
A drive iwth the system from a G5 though can.
During startup the boot process scans all volumes and looks for systems and mountable volumes.
Pull all the drives except the one with OS X that you were using, and put that in bay #1.
I've moved arrays between bays and that never "broke" the array or had trouble mounting and using (even moving to ODD ports).

Hard Drive Corrupted - No Disc or Optical Drive Available.

HI all,
Just looking for some advice. I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch) Early 2011. I think it was Snow Leopard installed.
Yesterday, the hard drive came to the end of it's life. During use the computer started to make a buzzing sound every two seconds or. I'm not an expert, but I would go with it being the hard drive.
I currently live in China & the internet is very slow, yet the only way to get to DU is via the internet recovery. I attempted to 'repair' the disk, but it syas the 'Macintosh HD etc etc is corrupted'. In your experience would you believe this siffucient evidence to place it at the door of a HD failure?
THe info on there, I can deal with losing. Hopefully I can somehow get music from my iPad back onto the new HD.
I will purchase a new HD & I feel competent enough to fit it in the laptop. I then have a couple of issues. I have left the OSX disc in England. I have no access to it. My optical drive is also broken after a student tried to put a mini-disc in there. That said, how will I be able to install an operating system? Is it possible to do via an imternet link, USB drive?
Unfortunately I cannot speak Chinese well enough to get an expert in. I would like to do this as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Please note, I have no access to the OSX discs & my optical drive is broken.
Thank you for any advice.
Regards,
Stuart.

Snow Leopard is installed only via a disk. You would have either get duplicate disks from Apple or find Snow Leopard disks that are for the EXACT same model as yours.
The other option is to try to clone Mavericks (10.9) into your MBP from another Mac. Downloaded from the Internet, Mavericks will have all of the necessary drivers for your MBP but I am not certain if that will be the case if another Mac is the source.
Ciao.

Mavericks Broke My Optical Drive

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