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External DVD writer for MBP

xanis

xanis

Lifer
I have a pre-unibody MBP with a busted SuperDrive. I can read and write CDs, but not DVDs (I'm assuming that the Snow Leopard upgrade was the culprit). This is a huge PITA and I'd like to fix the problem without spending any more of my life's savings on repairs for this damn laptop.

I'm really not willing to spend $100+ on a replacement SuperDrive, so I'm looking to get an external DVD writer. I found a few on Newegg that are reasonably-priced, but none have OS X firmware IIRC.

Any suggestions? Keep in mind: The cheaper, the better.
 
Most any USB based external will work, the only catch that I have found is whether or not Apple's applications detect the drive properly. However, there are ways around that... DVD Player doesn't recognize it? Use VLC. Disk Utility doesn't recognize it? Use Burn.
 
Back when I had a Hackintosh, iLife programs wouldn't detect my DVD burner. I found some kind of hack, which was later included in the Kalyway releases, that let my burner work with all programs as expected. Perhaps you could do the same.

Does it really cost $100 for a new internal drive? Yikes.
 
Do this:
Put a HDD in its place
Take the "busted" SuperDrive and buy a $20 usb enclosure for it

worth a shot?
 
alfa147x said:
Do this:
Put a HDD in its place
Take the "busted" SuperDrive and buy a $20 usb enclosure for it

worth a shot?
Click to expand...

do better than this. put a ssd in it's place. i'm planning on getting the new 15 inch macbook pro, putting in a ssd in the superdrive slot, and putting the superdrive in an enclosure i do believe they have kits to make this happen.
 
ubercaffeinated said:
do better than this. put a ssd in it's place. i'm planning on getting the new 15 inch macbook pro, putting in a ssd in the superdrive slot, and putting the superdrive in an enclosure i do believe they have kits to make this happen.
Click to expand...

Technicalities: an SSD is still a HDD 😉
 
Damn you all, now I'm scheming on a dual-HDD setup. :hmm:

I'm thinking about getting a low-capacity SSD and making it my boot drive, with the OS and any other programs that would benefit from added speed. I could keep my current 7200rpm 250GB drive as the second drive and use it to store music/pictures/movies/whatever.
 
xanis said:
I have a pre-unibody MBP with a busted SuperDrive. I can read and write CDs, but not DVDs (I'm assuming that the Snow Leopard upgrade was the culprit). This is a huge PITA and I'd like to fix the problem without spending any more of my life's savings on repairs for this damn laptop.

I'm really not willing to spend $100+ on a replacement SuperDrive, so I'm looking to get an external DVD writer. I found a few on Newegg that are reasonably-priced, but none have OS X firmware IIRC.

Any suggestions? Keep in mind: The cheaper, the better.
Click to expand...
Any USB DVD writer is fine, ASUS has a popular slimline model.

You can possibly fix your SuperDrive. Google "clean superdrive lens" and see where it leads you.
 
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