External DVD drive -Apple or Other?

[whyrichard]

Hey,

I have a newish mac mini, the one with no DVD drive.
I will need to install bootcamp on it, which is nearly impossible without an external DVD drive. I figure I might as well get it anyways, as future imacs and airs will not have a drive in them either...

so, my question is:

-Should i get the apple DVD external drive? Or is aftermarket okay? specifically for installing bootcamp windows...

THANKS!

r.

[trustever]

Any will work flowlessy, super drive will only cost you much more than the others and if you consider that you will not use it too often why do you want to spend that much? Go amazon and for less than the super driver price you can get a bluray player!

[firedept]

I have both the Super Drive by Apple and an after market drive. Both work well. I like the Super Drive better as it only has 1 USB cable, where as my after market has 2, one cable for power supply the other for data. Super Drive is quicker but slightly more expensive.

[rbrian]

I managed to download an ISO of Windows 7 to Bootcamp my MacBook Air with no optical drive. I think I had to use a Windows-only tool to make a bootable USB stick, but I can't remember exactly.

If you do need an optical drive, there's no good reason to go for an Apple drive over anything else - I use a Panasonic DVD-ROM drive from 2001, and it works just fine, with a single USB cable.

[trustever]

expecially if the USB port is a USB 3, it will be enough from the one cable for both data and power supply.

[oldgeezer]

If you're getting an external drive anyway, why not consider a BluRay burner? The extra capacity will come in handy and you can play BluRay discs on your Mac.

[RickyB]

I seem to remember reading somewhere about booting issues from non-apple DVD drives - I could be (and probably am) wrong on this, but it might be worth looking into first.

[LeandrodaFL]

for a simple DVD-Writer, I recomend Apples cause they are more beautiful and are only 1 cable. I even think they ar emore silent.

But getting a external blu-ray drive is also an option, as will give you blu-ray capabilities under Windows.

Either way, my real recomendation is not to bootcamp, keep your Mac your mac, and for windows, get a windows machine, a notebook is $300 or less used

[macpluslaptop]

If you're getting an external drive anyway, why not consider a BluRay burner? The extra capacity will come in handy and you can play BluRay discs on your Mac.

Any recommendations on a BluRay burner?

[bdj33ranch]

Related question.
I have a Lacie Lightscribe DVD-RW from several years ago that uses a FW400 connection. Will the new non-optical drive Macs recognize it?

[rbrian]

Originally Posted by bdj33ranch

Related question.
I have a Lacie Lightscribe DVD-RW from several years ago that uses a FW400 connection. Will the new non-optical drive Macs recognize it?

A few Macs have FW800 connections, all have USB, none have have FW400.

[Macsonic]

Originally Posted by bdj33ranch

Related question.
I have a Lacie Lightscribe DVD-RW from several years ago that uses a FW400 connection. Will the new non-optical drive Macs recognize it?

I have an old 2005 Sony Ext dvd writer with FW400 and recognized by newer Macs and works fine with Toast Titanium. I also have a 2007 Lacie Ext DVD writer that also works perfect with newer Macs