What is a SuperDrive?

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Level 1

8 points

What is a SuperDrive?

What is a "SuperDrive"? The topmost toolbar shows battery life, volume etc. Suddenly, I have an "eject" icon in the toolbar that I'm positive was never there before. I'm seeing forum discussions regarding some update to SuperDrive, and how it's supposed to help the burn speed, but that doesn't tell me much. The only reason I'm asking is because my mouse had quit working entirely, and when I noticed the SuperDrive icon and clicked on it, I was asked if I wanted to close SuperDrive. When I did, the mouse began working normally (which could just be temporary). Now, when I click on it, the message appears, "Close SuperDrive F12". Nothing happens when I click on it, and pressing F12 brings up the Dashboard. What gives? I'm running Version 10.4.11 on an IMac 5.1 with a wireless Mighty Mouse. Thanks for your help.

IMac 501, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Running Tiger OS

Posted on May 20, 2009 4:00 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 20, 2009 4:14 PM in response to thestones

SuperDrive is just an Apple name for the optical drive that supports CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW plus several other optical disc protocols.

The Eject icon in the toolbar can be installed any number of different ways, so how it was enabled on your machine only you would know.

Opening System Profiler (Utilities folder) should provide the information on what type of optical drive your computer has installed. If it only supports CD read/write and DVD read only, then it's a Combo drive, not a SuperDrive.

You can find firmware updates by searching support.apple.com/downloads/ to find what if any firmware updates are available for your hardware. I can't help you more with this because your hardware configuration profile does not provide the specific model of iMac you have.

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Answer 2

Klaus1

Level 9

52,873 points

May 20, 2009 4:10 PM in response to thestones

The Superdrive is your CD/DVD player and recorder.

Did you not know that your Mac can do that?

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