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External DVD drive -Apple or Other?

W

whyrichard

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 15, 2002
1,695
4
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.
 
T

trustever

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2013
290
0
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

firedept

macrumors 603
Jul 8, 2011
6,277
1,130
Somewhere!
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

rbrian

macrumors 6502a
Jul 24, 2011
784
342
Aberdeen, Scotland
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.
 
T

trustever

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2013
290
0
expecially if the USB port is a USB 3, it will be enough from the one cable for both data and power supply.
 
O

oldgeezer

macrumors member
Dec 10, 2012
72
0
Maryland
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.
 
R

RickyB

macrumors regular
Oct 28, 2007
210
6
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

LeandrodaFL

macrumors 6502a
Apr 6, 2011
973
1
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
 
M

macpluslaptop

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2007
314
10
What BluRay options?

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?
 
B

bdj33ranch

macrumors regular
Apr 19, 2005
145
11
Fw400?

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?
 
Macsonic

Macsonic

macrumors 68000
Sep 6, 2009
1,706
97
bdj33ranch said:
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?
Click to expand...

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
 
phrehdd

phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,311
1,310
There are all sorts of drives out there that will work with the Mac (and actually some that will not work well). LG, and various others make excellent external drives and you can always check at places like OWC.

I use an external Blue Ray writer with great success for the longest time and it has served me well for reads, disc creation (CD, DVD and Blue Ray).

If you are into "looks" you could opt for the Mini-stack that is the same footprint as the Mini and allows for both slot load Blue Ray and a drive. It has several connections including USB3 and Firewire. It is not cheap but its elegant. (If this one takes your interest, I highly recommend you put spacers between the unit and the Mini.)

My unit is an external 5.25 case with a Pioneer internal Blue Ray player. It has multiple connections and I opt for FW800 (given that there is no USB3 on this older enclosure).
 
Last edited:
I

insane79

macrumors 6502
Aug 20, 2008
276
1
phrehdd said:
There are all sorts of drives out there that will work with the Mac (and actually some that will not work well). LG, and various others make excellent external drives and you can always check at places like OWC.

I use an external Blue Ray writer with great success for the longest time and it has served me well for reads, disc creation (CD, DVD and Blue Ray).

If you are into "looks" you could opt for the Mini-stack that is the same footprint as the Mini and allows for both slot load Blue Ray and a drive. It has several connections including USB3 and Firewire. It is not cheap but its elegant. (If this one takes your interest, I highly recommend you put spacers between the unit and the Mini.)

My unit is an external 5.25 case with a Pioneer internal Blue Ray player. It has multiple connections and I opt for FW800 (given that there is no USB3 on this older enclosure).
Click to expand...
did you use this external drive to load windows via bootcamp??
 
phrehdd

phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,311
1,310
insane79 said:
did you use this external drive to load windows via bootcamp??
Click to expand...

When Bootcamp first came out (actually a few months later) I did a bootcamp install. What I have done since then -

1) install a virtual from disc (did this with both Fusion and Parallels from different discs)
2) install a virtual from an ISO that I made from disc

Both of the above from an external Blue Ray writer.

Hope that helps
 
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