does macbook air superdrive work with mac mini

Yes. I bought a MB Air Superdrive for use with my 2009 mini when its internal drive died. Works great, and the insert/eject mechanism is much faster. I eventually got my internal drive replaced under warranty (10 days to spare), but I still prefer the external superdrive since it's so much snappier when inserting/ejecting.

Be careful to check the spec's, not all LG's support Mac OS X.

I really like my LG GE24LU20 Reviews it's big and bulky, but way faster and more reliable than any SuperDrive. Others here have also recommended the GP10 DVD and Blu-ray™ Drives IT Products

Plus, don't forget to look at > LaCie - LightScribe DVD±RW, Duplicators and Blu-ray - USB 2.0 & FireWire

and > SuperDrive DVD, DVD Dual-Layer, CD-R/RW, Blu-Ray Optical Drive Solutions FireWire, USB2, eSATA

Joseph Grcar wrote:

I went to the Genus bar at my local Apple store. They tried a lot of stuff. [...] So thanks Apple, at least the Genius guys can figure it out.

That's odd. I have the same OS level, same machine (Intel iMac late 2009) and it works fine with both drives connected. I would say the geniuses were, ah, mistaken. The reason I went with the Apple drive (besides the looks, which matches reasonably well - but it is smaller) is that I didn't have to worry about compatibility or lack thereof. And it was less bother than me prying open the Mini and replacing the internal drive myself. Turns out my warranty was still good enough for an internal replacement, but as I said, I'm liking the new superdrive more anyway.

Maybe the superdrive you have is defective. In the "lot of stuff" they did, did they try connecting another drive? Using other USB ports? Trying on a different mini?

Yes, you CAN hook it up. Check out this link. However there are a lot of external burners that are faster and cheaper than the Apple branded one. Check out this link.

Final word on macbook air superdrive with mac mini. The people at the genius bar showed me an internal apple advisory that said the external drive would not work with mac minis built prior to the mini refresh that occurred in early 2009.

You need to pay closer attention. He said that he bought his mini in JAN 2009. He has a Mid 2007 Mac mini. His is not the same model as yours, in fact your is two models after his. The superdrive in question will not work with his Mac mini. Unless he takes the risky hack of the OS suggested below.

Read the WHOLE link. It's a simple change to a prefs file. Not dangerous at all.

Not dangerous at all.

You are certainly entitled to that opinion. Playing with kext files can wreck havoc on the OS, it can be risky. It isn't a preference file, it is a driver file. And there is no guarantee that his older mini, that predates the drive, can use it even with the hack. This drive has no external power supply, it draws its power through the USB port and it needs more power than the standard 500mA @ 5V = 2.5 W that most USB 2 ports can offer. I'm not familiar with his Mid 2007 Mac mini's USB ports, so even if the hack of the driver kext file was executed properly, his mini may still not physically be able to power and use the drive.

Good grief! Read the entire article, INCLUDING COMMENTS. It's a change to a PREFS file. Also, if the USB pulls too much power, the driver will shut it down.