Id need to know where i could find the connector between the optical drive and the logicboard. Reformatting would be for a hard drive and not an optical drive. Handy for using on the road with a macbook air or retina macbook pro. The apple usb superdrive is compatible with mac models from 2008 and later that dont have a builtin optical drive. Once launched you can open a dvd by going to file open dvd player. Most things i found online suggested buying an external optical drive. The inch notebook had not been updated since june 2012, but.
Use the cd or dvd drive from another computer with your mac. And given that few macs even include optical drives these days, apple s never going to bring bluray to the mac. Finder app is enough, so you not needed for any extra app such as idvd, or the thirdparty app to download and installed. Apple no longer sells a mac with a cd drive macrumors. If you dont remember your credentials, you can walk through our account recovery page to see if you already have an account. Recommendi have a mac book pro without dvd, this dvd drive with usb c. However, the mac pro is capable of supporting thirdparty optical drive options that include bluray. How to use cds, dvds, and blurays on a mac without an optical. First of all, if you need macbook air to be thin enough, its impossible to put an optical drive in it. After youve enabled dvd or cd sharing, you can use that computers optical drive at any time.
Although this should be an issue since you see it in about this mac. I have had my mac mini for a year and a half and only recently wanted to buy a optical drive for it and i did not want to spend 7080 dollars for an apple superdrive. Apple builtinusb superdrive not working issues fixed. The tricks here are similar to how youd access an optical drive on a windows ultrabook or similar pc that doesnt include an optical drive of its own. Ensure your apple usb superdrive is lying flat on a surface with the silver top facing upward and dont put apple external cd drive underneath anything heavy. Apple has discontinued its nonretina legacy macbook pro, the last mac it sold with a builtin cddvd drive. Why doesnt apple sell a macbook pro with a cd drive. Ensure that both computers are connected to the same network, then, on your mac without the cd drive, open finder. Make cd or dvd on mac either using the optical dvd drive of your mac book pro, mac book air, imac or using external dvd drive like non apple usb super drive.
But i switched to cdrs and now dvdrs for mostly backups. Best laptops with an optical drive in 2020 windows central. Such cases include when the optical drive has been removed or is broken. Apple introduces macbook airthe worlds thinnest notebook. Use the virtualization software s features to mount the virtual harddrive. However, in case you delete your dvd, cd or bluray discs by accident. You can only read, not write, from a shared optical drive. But you can still use cds, dvds, blurays, and other optical discs on your mac. How to install software from a cddvd to a macbook air. Not so long ago in 2001 apple launched an imac with the slogan rip, mix, burn. Find the best external cd drives for mac based on what customers said. Why doesnt apple include an optical drive on the macbook. Along with the answer to this perplexing question, we also have tips and trick on how to clear the other storage on mac just like the other on iphone and ipad, it is home to a number of files, cached data and more. How to play dvds and cds on a mac that doesnt have a builtin.
My aunt just a bought a mac and it seems to have no optical drive. Why do most new laptops come without an optical drive. In the sidebar, under devices, you should see the option for remote disc. Modern macs do not have optical drives, which makes it difficult to play. Pc to mac dvdcd optical drive sharing aerial andre. Workarounds for the macbook airs lack of optical drive. Have you tried an audio cd in the buffalo drive on the mac or just dvds.
Recover data from scratched or damaged cd or dvd optical drive. Install a windows 7 partition on mac osx without optical. The macbook air can be equipped with an external superdrive, or you can use another computers drive remotely over your wireless network. I was able to install windows 8 from an iso on my early 2011 macbook pro running os x 10.
Install windows bootcamp without cd or usb flash drive. Macbook air optical drive on a macbook february 2008. How to install an optical drive into the apple macbook inch owc. Depending on your macbook, your computer includes one of the following. What is other storage on mac and how to clean it up. The optical drive may be a dying feature on laptops, but some folks absolutely must have one. If that doesnt solve the problem, the drive itself is probably defective. Select remote disc in the devices section of the sidebar. Apple started abandoning rotating medias with a 2009 revision to the mac mini server, which came without an optical drive, but contained a second hard drive in its place. Note that he apple usb superdrive and macbook air superdrive are designed especially for use with mac computers that do not have a builtin optical drive. They therefore add bulk to laptops, and nobody wants a bulky laptop. But apple s decided the optical drive is just no longer mandatory equipment.
Have you tried using a different usb port on your mac or a different usb cable. Design plays into every decision that apple makes, too, so excising the drive makes it possible for them to build slimmer and smaller devices as well. Thats ok you can download your software directly from turbotax. Apples been phasing out optical drives in its macs since it introduced the. They dont help block anything new, and what it does catch almost all as email attachments are windows malware. To use your superdrive, connect it to a usba port on your mac, then insert a disc. Do you wonder what is other storage on mac and why does it eats up so much space. Most software is downloaded rather than shipped on media.
Also, when a windows iso file is available and the mac has a working optical drive, but no blank dvd can be obtained. Playing a dvd on a mac that has an integrated optical drive couldnt be easier. Pc manufacturers have good reasons not to include the drives. Check compatibility the apple usb superdrive is compatible with mac models from 2008 and later that dont have a builtin optical drive. They felt that it would be a production computer more so than a consumptive one and the focus would be portabilityall unnecessary weight would be eliminated. I bought the cd, but my computer doesnt have a cd drive. Apple estimates that with wireless networking turned on, the macbook air can get about 5 hours of battery life. If your mac doesnt have a builtin optical drive and you need to use a cd or dvd.
I bought the samsung optical drive to use with my late 2012 mac mini as you have to provide everything for the mac mini mouse, keyboard, monitor. How to use cds, dvds, and blurays on a mac without an. Owcs stepbystep video of how to install an optical drive in the apple macbook. I put my hdd in a caddie to put it instead of the optical drive but my macbook keep disconnecting it. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the selection. They cant do anything to your mac, so simply delete them if you get one. Why isnt there a cd drive in my new apple community. Apple killed the disc drive, but its for your own good. If that happens, power down the system completely, allow it to remain off for a minute or so, and then power it back up. The other option for installing software or reading a dvd on the macbook air is lions builtin cddvd sharing feature. Macbook air optical drive on a macbook by ahmedalhani jan 28, 2008 9. If you have a disk already mounted and your system goes to sleep, it also powers down ports, including usb ports. An optical drive andor windows installation dvd is unavailable.
Its not unusual for your optical drive to be working just fine in a previous version of windows or windows 10, then the minute you upgrade to a new version, it stops working. This portable drive is working great so far with my mac pro laptop,fast and instant with no. The macbook air forgoes the optical drive to keep it thin and small. The tricks here are similar to how youd access an optical drive on a windows ultrabook or similar pc that doesnt include an optical drive. This requires you to install a windows application supplied by apple with your macbook air. Apple provides no support for commercial bluray movies, but commercial movies can be played with thirdparty software and the bluray format can be used for convenient backups up to 50 gb. Macbook pro 15 unibody early 2011 optical drive replacement. Unsurprisingly then, builtin optical drives are no longer a standard feature on many modern laptops and macbooks are no exception.
Burn dvd of your photo album, movie, and memorable moment then. This connects happily to any usbequipped mac or macbook. The appropriate server software is included on a mac, so youll just have to. Connect and use your superdrive to use your superdrive, connect it to a usba port on your mac, then insert a disc.
Ive not been there to see the computer although i had the same reaction to the floppy drive disappearing and have not used them for years. When software comes on a cd or dvd and you want to install it on a macbook air, you cant just pop open the disc drive or slide a disc into a slot, like you would on a computer with an optical drive. Click on this, and the contents of the disk in your other computer should populate. Its also the only option for a mac that used to have an optical drive but no longer does, since for some reason these devices are no longer able to boot from usb. Optical drives sometimes refuse to eject a disc, using either software eject or the eject button on the drive itself. After all, cds and dvds has become the defacto standard for software distribution, and although its importance is waning by the day, its still. Say goodbye to internal superdrives with the latest. Windows 10 needs to be installed to boot using the legacy bios method. Apple hasnt included an optical drive on any macs for quite a while. Then, on june 15, 2010, apple dropped a builtin optical drive from all versions of the mac mini to introduce other perks in place of it, like a thunderbolt port. Apples macbook air, along with many other macs, no longer includes an optical drive.
How to connect the apple usb superdrive apple support. The disc should then be available on any mac thats connected to the same network. The complete guide to install windows on mac without an. The one annoyance with the new mac mini was the lack of an optical drive. There are good reasons to abandon optical drives on macbook air.
There are several reasons why your mac wont recognize a drive. How to use mini or other nonstandard optical discs on your mac. Unlike cpus and ssds, optical drives cant shrink much. You cant write data to the remote drive, even if that drive is a dvd recorder. Sharing is an option if you have a wired or wireless network with at least one of the following. When you wake your mac up, for whatever reason, your external drive does not wake up. Now its down to one last mac with an optical drive. On the mac that doesnt have an optical drive, open a finder window. So you have to resort to one of the following means to get your programs installed. Macbook, macbook air, and macbook pro models with usbc ports require a usbc to usb adapter sold separately to use apple usb superdrive. Apples macbook air, along with many other macs, no longer.
While there is no difference in the way the discs are read, the odd shapes will get them stuck in many slotloading drives seen in macbooks, macbook pros, mac minis, and imac systems. Insert a disc in the optical drive of the computer thats being shared. This section houses a mix of junk and important files. Its harder than ever to find a good laptop with this kind of drive, but not impossible. I replaced the optical drive in my macbook pro with a ssd and put the optical drive in a portable usb enclosure from other world computing. How to live without a cd or dvd drive in your laptop. With your optical drive and data writing software, you can choose to record data on disc for permanent or temporary use.