Finding external enclosure for 9.5mm SuperDrive

[fingernagel]

iMac 27-inch

Does this also work with the SuperDrive from my iMac 27-inch 2.8Ghz i7? I would like to put an SSD in the slot and use the SuperDrive externally. Does this change affect my AppleCare and warranty? And if yes, what can I do that it does not affect? Go to a certificated Apple Service to replace it?

 

[maxixe]

getting Apple DVD Player to work with external drives

Heres the thread on getting Apple DVD Player to work with external drives.

It was an interesting procedure and worksjust fine now and was well worth it.

Good Luck!

Sorry, I am new to the forum. I need a link to that and I cannot see it here. Please direct me. I would like to find the driver for controlling the Apple dvd drive placed in an external enclosure and connected via usb. I have been reading there are problems to control it with Apple DVD player. So you seem to offer a hint to the solution. Please enlighten me.

 

[farmermac]

Here's a 9.5mm SATA optical drive enclosure for $15

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220595035019&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I hacked the tray door off an old cd-rom drive , cut a slot into it and painted it black.

None of the notebook external dvd enclosures come with a front panel.

 

[Piplodocus]

Heres the thread on getting Apple DVD Player to work with external drives.

It was an interesting procedure and worksjust fine now and was well worth it.

Good Luck!

Where? I don't see a link? Or does Apple ban you from seeing hyperlinks if you have an external DVD drive?

 

[Makaveli6103]

deleted

 

[rawdawg]

welp.... guess I should have done more research instead just getting this. Newer MBPs are SATA, not IDE, so after buying a waiting a few weeks I now have a useles IDE to USB thingy....

DOES NOT WORK WITH NEWER MBPs.....

 

[sMiK]

the question that I've got about this guys, will it just work? Because the guys that make the OptiBay have some drivers to make the enclosure work under macos, as apparently the os is always looking for the optical drive under the sata connection where we currently have our second hdd/ssd. So has anyone got these drivers or knows where to download them from?

Also, will you be able to reinstall macosx using that? Or do you use a different method?

I'm looking at getting this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/External-USB-ca...e_Internal&hash=item53e2b3d893#ht_3335wt_1141

 

[goldenaustin]

the question that I've got about this guys, will it just work? Because the guys that make the OptiBay have some drivers to make the enclosure work under macos, as apparently the os is always looking for the optical drive under the sata connection where we currently have our second hdd/ssd. So has anyone got these drivers or knows where to download them from?

Also, will you be able to reinstall macosx using that? Or do you use a different method?

I'm looking at getting this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/External-USB-ca...e_Internal&hash=item53e2b3d893#ht_3335wt_1141

I just bought one from eBay, seems identitical but different overseas seller. I'm literally installing OSX from it right now onto an SSD drive I stuck in the optical bay caddy I bought from the same seller. So far so good, no extra drivers needed. The enclosure uses two usb plugs, one for data and the other for power. I plugged both into my MBP, but I believe you need to have your MBP plugged in to get it to read properly. I'm not positive about that yet, but my initial test while the MBP was on battery was failing to read the disk. However, during this fresh install, with the MBP plugged in, it's reading just fine.

It's a longish wait from these overseas buyers but well worth the cost and wait. I didn't realize these enclosures don't have bezels, so it's not 100% pretty, but prettier than just using the bare drive with adapter.

BTW, I also tested the drive on my Hackintosh and it worked like a charm, even with the Apple DVD player.

Here's the drive enclosure:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390266033751&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Here's the optical bay caddy:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330498301276&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

[tasslehawf]

Dammit. I think because of the chinese new year, I can't order one until Feb. 7. None of the ebay stores are accepting orders.

If I have to play $30 to get a case, I might as well get a whole drive and I really don't need one.

 

[tjb1]

Good luck finding a case, you can get them off ebay but you will never find a bezel. I got my case from MaxUpgrades

 

[StandardMeth0d]

Hey everyone.

Just ordered the OWC Data Doubler w/ an SSD and was researching for external SuperDrive enclosures. Can anyone point me to the be-all-end-all enclosure kit? The Maxupgrades one looks nice, but I can't find it alone on the website—same with MCE's enclosure. eBay's options, like you guys said, work but have no bezel and take FOREVER to ship. I use the optical drive a good amount of times since I work with music and A LOT of samples/sounds/songs/etc still come on discs, so I preferebly want something reliable.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tjb1]

Hey everyone.

Just ordered the OWC Data Doubler w/ an SSD and was researching for external SuperDrive enclosures. Can anyone point me to the be-all-end-all enclosure kit? The Maxupgrades one looks nice, but I can't find it alone on the website—same with MCE's enclosure. eBay's options, like you guys said, work but have no bezel and take FOREVER to ship. I use the optical drive a good amount of times since I work with music and A LOT of samples/sounds/songs/etc still come on discs, so I preferebly want something reliable.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Call the guy at MaxUpgrades...it will cost $25

 

[StandardMeth0d]

Call the guy at MaxUpgrades...it will cost $25

Thanks for the tip! Do you own the enclosure? If so, how is it?

 

[nygfan80]

Found this from another thread

http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=Product.display&product_id=186

I believe it's $89 for the kit plus with ext enclosure with USB. What's $25 anyway?

 

[tjb1]

Thanks for the tip! Do you own the enclosure? If so, how is it?

I owned both at one time, stay away from the optibay...they didnt make it right so if you tighten the screws under the speaker grill it pulls them down and causes dents on top. I returned it but kept the enclosure and he said it was $24 when he refunded me the other. Its plastic but it works.

 

[peanutismint]

This has all been interesting reading - having recently installed a second hard drive myself I'm simply looking for an enclosure that will take my 9.5mm SATA Superdrive.

I like the look of the MaxUpgrades one - don't seem to be able to purchase one separately though. Have emailed the guys, hopefully they'll be able to sort me out...

The thing is, all of the cheapo 9.5mm SATA superdrive enclosures on eBay etc seem to require the dreaded 2 x USB ports to operate (unlike the official superdrive and this maxupgrades one which are both bus powered...). Does anybody know anything about electronics or the likelihood of being able to hack one of these cheapo eBay jobbies to become bus powered, eliminating the need for a second power cable??

 

[peanutismint]

Call the guy at MaxUpgrades...it will cost $25

I've emailed MaxUpgrades twice to enquire but no response (this was a few weeks ago now....). I live in the UK so probably not going to bother calling up, any ideas if it's available anywhere else??

**UPDATE**

They seem to have updated the site since I last checked and now offer the optical drive enclosure separately in the drop-down list for $25!

**UPDATE 2**
$25 shipping to the UK? Geddouddahere.

 

[basesloaded190]

If your buying the data doubler from OWC and other things, why not just purchase their external kit for the optical drive??

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/VLSS9TOPTU2/

 

[StandardMeth0d]

If your buying the data doubler from OWC and other things, why not just purchase their external kit for the optical drive??

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/VLSS9TOPTU2/

This had to be released relatively recently, because I never saw this when I picked up my MaxUpgrades one (which works flawlessly btw). This OWC one looks nice but is expensive. You might be better off just buying a separate external drive for cheaper than that.

 

[s.hasan546]

This had to be released relatively recently, because I never saw this when I picked up my MaxUpgrades one (which works flawlessly btw). This OWC one looks nice but is expensive. You might be better off just buying a separate external drive for cheaper than that.

exactly.

why pay $25-$50 for an enclosure when i can get an external dvd drive for the same range?

Just buy one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...206&cm_re=external_dvd-_-27-135-206-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...231&cm_re=external_dvd-_-27-151-231-_-Product

 

[basesloaded190]

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Ehh the $15 saved isn't a big deal. I'm purchasing a couple hundred dollars worth of other stuff from owc and will have to do something with the optical drive so this fits the bill for me.

 

[s.hasan546]

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Ehh the $15 saved isn't a big deal. I'm purchasing a couple hundred dollars worth of other stuff from owc and will have to do something with the optical drive so this fits the bill for me.

i guess... i think owc is overpriced for almost everything they sell.

bought my optibay for $20 off ebay, and i was pleasantly surprised that the quality was amazing.

$30 for a external drive. $219 for my 128 gb Crucial m4.
Total: $270

If i bought from OWC it would have cost me $320+75+$50= $445.

I really don't see any owc products that are worth the premium. why spend $175 more for the same quality??

 

[L2gbrian]

Anyone else not able to play DVD's after placing the original in this enclosure? I can read, write, etc. with the drive (even installed SL) but I cannot play a video DVD, get an error from DVD player "A valid DVD drive could not be found [-70012]" but I can find the DVD in finder...

Anyone having this problem PM me I have a fix for this only if your DVD player is version 5.4 so check your DVD player info and see if it is 5.4 if it is PM me

Here's a video no vlc needed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYkbQix0-tI

 

[basesloaded190]

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Ehh the $15 saved isn't a big deal. I'm purchasing a couple hundred dollars worth of other stuff from owc and will have to do something with the optical drive so this fits the bill for me.

i guess... i think owc is overpriced for almost everything they sell.

bought my optibay for $20 off ebay, and i was pleasantly surprised that the quality was amazing.

$30 for a external drive. $219 for my 128 gb Crucial m4.
Total: $270

If i bought from OWC it would have cost me $320+75+$50= $445.

I really don't see any owc products that are worth the premium. why spend $175 more for the same quality??

Their ram prices are right in line with everyone else. I don't think comparing your m4 to the pro 6g is fair. Compare the owc to the vertex 3 (which is a more fair comparison) and you will notice that they are similar in price.

I will agree their external drives are overpriced though. WD externals can be had for much cheaper.

 

[s.hasan546]

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Their ram prices are right in line with everyone else. I don't think comparing your m4 to the pro 6g is fair. Compare the owc to the vertex 3 (which is a more fair comparison) and you will notice that they are similar in price.

I will agree their external drives are overpriced though. WD externals can be had for much cheaper.

I bought my Crucial ram for 75 on sale on newegg... so thats $30 extra for owc (they just dropped their price btw, b4 their 8 gb ram kit was like $149.)

Also i think comapring the M4 to the Pro 6g is very fair. Similar Reads (100 mb/s difference). Write speeds are slower but who cares? Those speeds aren't indicative of real life performance. 4k random read/writes are. In the Anandtech tests the m4 was on par with the OCZ vertex 3. BTW i noticed almost no difference between these new sata III drives compared to fast sata II drives. Just looking at sequential read/writes doesn't paint an accurate picture of performance. Its more of a dick measuring contest IMHO lol.

and i wasn't just talking about their ssds. Just compare their optibay + enclosure. its almost $100 more expensive to go with them.