DIY external optical drive?

[delnerdo]

Remember optical drives?

My ability to rip and burn died with my 2009 MacPro 4,1
and the Apple external USB drive is notoriously unreliable
so why not try alternatives? The MacPro superdrive worked great.

I pulled the optical drive from the Mac Pro tower,
and connected it to the bus with a USB to SATA adapter. Why not?

The drive has power - the cupholder tray ejects beautifully,
but the USB bus does not recognize the drive.

Does anyone know how to help the two talk?

In principle, it's an Apple supported drive.
However, none of the burn-capable applications can see it.

Any clues, or am I stuck in fanboy purgatory?

Can hdiutil do it? The man page sure lists ability to do everything else you might want.

(Please don't tell me to use Toast unless you know it will work.
I would rather spend the cash on hardware than to learn the hard way that I will need to do so anyway.)

 

[matreya]

I pulled the optical drive from the Mac Pro tower,
and connected it to the bus with a USB to SATA adapter. Why not?

Does the adapter provide power from a mains-connected power brick?

 

[delnerdo]

No external power supply is involved.
As with a mechanical disk drive, the power is provided by the USB line.
Do you think it would help?
I see they (Sabrent) make a different converter with external power.

 

[delnerdo]

PS: Did I fail to mention this?

hdiutil burn -list

hdiutil: burn: no CD/DVD drives present

 

[waw74]

It's probably not got enough juice to fully power up the drive, you'll need an external adapter.

that drive is old enough, it might not be as efficient as current units.

 

[ColdCase]

I think I did something similar a year or so ago, but I had to power the drive with an external power brick. Memory is fading, however.

 

[matreya]

As with a mechanical disk drive, the power is provided by the USB line.
Do you think it would help?

Yes, the USB bus doesn't supply enough power to drive the DVD burner, it should appear in Disk Utility after you put it into an enclosure that uses an external power brick.

Something like this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRSFW8U3/

Which you should be able to source cheaper without Firewire...