Two dead external SuperDrives??

[Rob.G]

I ordered a SuperDrive to go with the Mac Mini that's due here tomorrow. The SuperDrive arrived on Friday. I plugged it into my 17" MacBook Pro and it only makes clicking noises. It won't take in a disc, doesn't show up in System Report or Disk Utility or anything. I figured it was bad.

This morning, I bought one from the local Best Buy, figuring I'd return the other one to Apple. Well, it's doing the same exact thing. Now I'm wondering... will an external SuperDrive work on a machine with one already built-in?? Or did I actually manage to get two bad SuperDrives?

I'm all up to date software-wise... 10.8.2, etc. I've rebooted, no change. I've tried difference USB ports on the MBP and also on my Thunderbolt display. No change.

Rob

[MCAsan]

And when you plug either into a friends MAc or a Mac at the local Appler store or reseller....what happens

[Rob.G]

The local Apple store is an hour away, and I don't have any local friends with Macs. I suppose I could take one to work and plug it into my Mac Mini there. I'll do that tomorrow.

Rob

[harry454]

If I recall correctly the Apple Super Drive had a software restriction, where Apple allowed it only to work on Mac's without a super drive. I believe there is a hack that allows to run on normal macs, it a pretty simple fix from what I recall. I just can't remember it at the moment. Give it a google!

[Rob.G]

Thanks!! I found the fix here:

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/02/use-t...ny-almost-mac/

I haven't rebooted yet; I have a Rip in progress. Once that's done, I'll do so and see how it goes. I was hoping to be able to rip two discs at once. Now maybe I can.

Rob

[Rob.G]

Yep, it works! Both drives are now visible and accessible. Only downside is that RipIt only works with the last inserted disc (whichever drive that happens go to into), and won't let me run multiple copies. So it'll require two different apps to rip multiple discs at once. Figures.

But at least I solved that mystery. Thanks again!

Rob