Multiple Optical drives?

[Mac... nificent]

The optical drive in my Macbook Pro stopped working. I brought it in to a repair shop and they said it would be costly to repair. I wasn't concerned because I figured I would just buy a USB drive and just use that, but my friend said that the USB drive wouldn't work. Something about Macs can only "see" one drive and since the original s still installed it would ignore any other drive. This doesn't make sense to me, is it true? If it is, could you please explain in more detail why? Thanks

 

[Trvlngnrs]

I don't know which MBP you have, but replacing them is pretty simple. A some screws and a connecting plug.

You Tube has videos on doing it.

 

[saturnotaku]

Replacing the optical drive in a unibody MacBook Pro is not terribly difficult or time consuming. The drive itself is available on eBay for $40 or less, a screwdriver kit containing a Phillips #00 (or 000) and Torx T6 is $5 or less, and all you need to do is follow the instructions in this video. The link is for the 15-inch MBP, but OWC has videos for other sizes. The procedure is pretty much the same for all of them.

 

[T5BRICK]

There are plenty of guides here. As someone else already said, optical drives are easy to replace.

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro

 

[Trvlngnrs]

Yes replacement is pretty easy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFfQD0EtbLM

You could always unplug it from the computer if you don't want to replace it, so the computer wont see it if what you were told is true.

 

[snaky69]

The optical drive in my Macbook Pro stopped working. I brought it in to a repair shop and they said it would be costly to repair. I wasn't concerned because I figured I would just buy a USB drive and just use that, but my friend said that the USB drive wouldn't work. Something about Macs can only "see" one drive and since the original s still installed it would ignore any other drive. This doesn't make sense to me, is it true? If it is, could you please explain in more detail why? Thanks

Your friend is misinformed. A USB drive will work just fine.

 

[Fishrrman]

I second the reply in post #6.

DON'T waste your money opening up the computer to replace the optical drive...

Just buy an external DVD/CD drive, plug it in, and use it.

It will be fine.

 

[Mac... nificent]

I don't know which MBP you have, but replacing them is pretty simple.

We're getting off track. My question is not so much about instructions on how to replace the drive. I was wondering more about using more than one drive on a Mac, which I've been told is not possible. The technician told me the operating system did not "see" the original drive, so replacing it wouldn't help.

I second the reply in post #6.

DON'T waste your money opening up the computer to replace the optical drive...

Just buy an external DVD/CD drive, plug it in, and use it.

It will be fine.

That's what I thought, but while I was at the store they connected a new USB drive and it would not accept DVD's either. Just like my internal drive it just kept ejecting the DVD's. That's why I figured my friend was right, but maybe there's something else going on... Also someone else told me that only specific USB drives work on a Mac. He said that he has a Final Cut DVD and OWC told him that only certain USB drives would play it. This is another reason why I thought my friend was right about Macs only using one drive at a time....

 

[Freyqq]

The optical drive in my Macbook Pro stopped working. I brought it in to a repair shop and they said it would be costly to repair. I wasn't concerned because I figured I would just buy a USB drive and just use that, but my friend said that the USB drive wouldn't work. Something about Macs can only "see" one drive and since the original s still installed it would ignore any other drive. This doesn't make sense to me, is it true? If it is, could you please explain in more detail why? Thanks

Not the case. I've done it before and it works fine. He might have been talking about the eject button on the keyboard, while I assume will try to eject the internal bay only.

 

[plusnq]

We're getting off track. My question is not so much about instructions on how to replace the drive. I was wondering more about using more than one drive on a Mac, which I've been told is not possible. The technician told me the operating system did not "see" the original drive, so replacing it wouldn't help.



That's what I thought, but while I was at the store they connected a new USB drive and it would not accept DVD's either. Just like my internal drive it just kept ejecting the DVD's. That's why I figured my friend was right, but maybe there's something else going on... Also someone else told me that only specific USB drives work on a Mac. He said that he has a Final Cut DVD and OWC told him that only certain USB drives would play it. This is another reason why I thought my friend was right about Macs only using one drive at a time....

I replaced my MBP optical drive with a hdd and use an external dvd drive. Also use externals with an iMac whose drive is kaput. All work fine.