Best external disc drives for both 2010 iMac and 2025 M4 MBP?

[rwh63]

the M4 does not have a built in disc drive, and my 2010 iMac's drive is not reading. so, would like to get a good quality drive that would work with both. mainly used for loading music cds, software, creating music/picture/video discs, etc.

 

[AlumaMac]

I have a USB 3.0 LG BP60NB10 Ultra Slim Portable Blu-Ray drive that I use with my M1 MBP that works well although is fairly noisy. I also purchased a full-size Lite-On DVD drive (with a SATA to USB3 adapter) to do a large batch of CD rips since it was much quieter. I'd imagine both would work with your iMac although they'll be stuck at USB 2 speeds.

 

[Fallforward]

Is a spinning disk a requirement? If not and given your use case and capability of the M4, how about a portable Thunderbolt or at least usb-c 3.2 SSD? For the 2010 iMac SSDs like Sandisk are cheap at Costco and Amazon.

 

[!!!]

Is a spinning disk a requirement? If not and given your use case and capability of the M4, how about a portable Thunderbolt or at least usb-c 3.2 SSD? For the 2010 iMac SSDs like Sandisk are cheap at Costco and Amazon.

They're looking for a disc drive, for reading and burning CDs and DVDs.

 

[Dr_Charles_Forbin]

After a lot of research, I bought this back in June from B&H…

Verbatim Ultra HD 4K USB 3.2 Gen 1 Blu-ray Writer​

It’s a little loud, louder than I’d like actually. But I use it pretty infrequently. It’s got a native USB-C interface, which is rare for these devices. I also wanted something a bit future-proof… and I’m kind of betting that the move back to physical media is gaining steam as we learn more about streaming services and digital licenses. In retrospect, though, I probably could’ve got away with an old Apple USB superdrive for the next couple of years. But I can vouch for this one.

I tried this one and sent it back… I didn't like it and I don’t recall why:
Buffalo Mediastation 6X Portable BDXL Blu-Ray Writer with M-Disc Support (TAA Compliant)