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Booting off USB optical drive

J

jnev

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 6, 2007
17
0
So I have a 2.2GHz SR MBP, and the superdrive just went out on me. It will read and write to CDs, but won't recognize any DVDs that I insert into it. I bought a USB enclosure and DVD drive, and it works fine to read and write to DVDs when in Snow Leopard, but I am unable to boot from it (specifically so I can install Windows 7, but I can't boot SL either). I reboot and and hold down option, and only see Macintosh HD, not the disk I'm trying to boot off. I've cloned SL to my flash drive and I can boot off that fine, but unfortunately I'm unable to do that with Windows...

Any ideas? I've googled it and it seems like booting off a USB optical drive is supported, so I'm unsure why it's not working for me...
 
Interesting issue, if i was you i'd rather buy the MacBook Air superdrive, since it's apple and it should work better? Try to call apple or ask in the MacBook Air forum community because they proly face that kind of issues more often than MacBook Pro owners
 
Well this is what I have, and I'm wondering how to make it work, not what to replace it with. Besides, an optical drive is an optical drive. They're all USB and all work the same.
 
Alvi said:
Interesting issue, if i was you i'd rather buy the MacBook Air superdrive, since it's apple and it should work better? Try to call apple or ask in the MacBook Air forum community because they proly face that kind of issues more often than MacBook Pro owners
Click to expand...

Unfortunately Apple have crippled these drives so they only work with the MacBook Air and the new Server Mac mini

pac
 
I am able to boot off my old external DVD burner connected by USB but not by Firewire. It is a monstrous 5.25"" Plextor drive that has its own power supply.
 
m85476585 said:
I am able to boot off my old external DVD burner connected by USB but not by Firewire. It is a monstrous 5.25"" Plextor drive that has its own power supply.
Click to expand...

Do you do anything specific to boot off it? What keys do you hold at boot?
 
pacmania1982 said:
Unfortunately Apple have crippled these drives so they only work with the MacBook Air and the new Server Mac mini

pac
Click to expand...

Now why would they go do something dumb like that..


I also need to boot of a USB DVD drive since I need to re-install W7 soon on my Macbook and it has no superdrive in it (optibay caddy in it). Haven't tried it yet though.
 
Well I tried using refit, and even that was unable to recognize the DVD. It's wierd, as soon as I boot up onto OS X the DVD is mounted on the desktop, so I know the DVD drive is working and is able to read DVDs. Any other ideas on what could be causing this, or how I can get around it and finally get Windows installed on my laptop?
 
I just re-installed Windows 7 on my MacBook using a regular Samsung DVD USB drive.

I just held down the Options key and the disc icon appeared on my Boot choices.
 
rgarjr said:
I just re-installed Windows 7 on my MacBook using a regular Samsung DVD USB drive.

I just held down the Options key and the disc icon appeared on my Boot choices.
Click to expand...

well that's awesome. mine doesn't show the disc at all when booting. either I have a bad optical drive or... I have no idea...
 
m85476585 said:
Can you install Windows 7 from a USB flash drive?
Click to expand...

I've tried that actually, and for some reason when I use disk utility to restore the ISO file to my flash drive, it gives me the error "Could not validate source - error 254". It's weird because I can put SL on the flash drive without any problems, and have done so multiple times. Are there any other programs I can use to clone the windows ISO file to my flash drive?
 
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