LG DVD RW IDE drive compatibility

[mtarkington]

Good afternoon,

I have just recently purchased my wife a new MacBook. Currently we are attempting to use this as our primary computer. We have been successful thus far.

I have just recently removed my LG DVD burner from my 'troubled' XP box. I am using an IDE to USB connection to attempt to try to have the Mac see the drive. No success thus far.

The drive is an LG Multi DVD Drive, GSA-4163B.

LG does not offer Mac drivers, but I would think there would be some way for it to work with the Mac.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

 

[rubyslippers]

LG DVD mac compatability

I also have a new LG DVD slim DVD driver. Doesn't seem to be compatible and called LG in UK who said that they don't support Mac and can't tell me if there's any way to get it to work. Just wondered if you had any joy with this?
Best
Fiona

 

[Tracer]

If OS X doesn't recognize it, you can forget about getting it to work. OS X has generic burner profiles and if it isn't recognized by these then odds are it will not work.

Tracer

 

[Love]

That's quite weird, as apple routinely uses HL-DL-ST GSA series drives inside of computers. Hitachi-LG drives (HLDS = LG branded external and internal drives can be found in MacBooks, MacBook pros, iMacs, Mac minis, and pretty much every mac with a slot loading drive, although right now Pioneer and Panasonic drives are the norm. Apple is phasing out use of Panasonic and it will be LG and Pioneer drives.


Weird.

 

[Slos]

combo drive

Hi there,

I would like to swap my mini's combo drive for something better. Anybody a clue where to get the best deal on a slim pioneer superdrive?

greetz,

Slos

 

[UltraNEO*]

Good afternoon,

I have just recently purchased my wife a new MacBook. Currently we are attempting to use this as our primary computer. We have been successful thus far.

I have just recently removed my LG DVD burner from my 'troubled' XP box. I am using an IDE to USB connection to attempt to try to have the Mac see the drive. No success thus far.

The drive is an LG Multi DVD Drive, GSA-4163B.

LG does not offer Mac drivers, but I would think there would be some way for it to work with the Mac.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

Hi Mark,

I assume this drive is a 5.25" unit. The type used in Desktop PC's?
If so, could you tell me if the (white) jumper is set to Master or Slave?? Most IDE to USB enclosures prefer the drive to be set to MASTER, this would explain why your Mac doesn't recognise it.

 

[UltraNEO*]

If OS X doesn't recognize it, you can forget about getting it to work. OS X has generic burner profiles and if it isn't recognized by these then odds are it will not work.

Tracer

Sorry, I should correct you here.

For most CD/DVD drives this wouldn't apply, mainly since most units would comply to the standard IDE protocol for media devices. All Macs current in production will accept almost any drive (with the exception of Blu-Ray). The only time a custom drivers are/is required would be to make the Mac compatible with additional features, such as LightScribe.

I believe the OP's problem is due to incorrect settings on the unit, or a possible fault in the enclosure's control board. Provided the OP is using a external PSU to power the unit, there shouldn't be any problems.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Hi there,

I would like to swap my mini's combo drive for something better. Anybody a clue where to get the best deal on a slim pioneer superdrive?

greetz,

Slos

FastMacs can supply you with a suitable drive to upgrade your MacMini, they can even offer you a BluRay (should you need it) And since all the drive interfaces are the same, installing the new unit should be a matter of removing the old and replacing it with the new.

http://fastmac.com/drives.php

Good Luck

 

[gr8bob]

I've had a LG GSA-E10L external USB drive that I've used before on my old G4 iBook. I'm surprised that it worked on Tiger with Toast.

 

[e12a]

it could be the controller used in the adapter

I used my 3.5" hard drive enclosure with a 5.25" Sony CD-RW via USB and it worked, although it isn't mounted inside the enclosure itself obviously.