no cd drive in new macbook?

It's not really that crazy if you don't need it, I have ordered a maxbook pro retina 13" which gets delivered Monday (yay) and I got the SuperDrive purely because I want to import DVDs and TV series and in the odd chance I decide I want to buy a cd rather than on the iTunes Store I can import it that way, plus it's only $99 not entirely expensive

the 13" MacBook Pro has a cd/dvd, the 13" Air does not.

Where is the sense in buying a laptop without a drive if you need access to cd/dvd?, buy the external drive or a different MacBook.

Oh, I'm sorry, i misunderstood. Take a look at the external superdrive or a cheaper alternative (if you do not think that you will need it often)

Yep that is the solution, of course even a better solution would be to have the older style with a retina display. However, the thin versions are really pretty nice. At my job I still get a lot disks from clients etc and I also have to exchange docs on doc as well for certain reasons. But I wouldn't mind having a little external burner like Apple offers. Just goes into the pack, not really a big deal.

enri wrote:

It is not only about watching dvd. Almost all diagnostic imaging examinations are released on cd or DVD .

Apple Gives a very consistent platform to medical imaging software. It is a waste of reputation not to offer any more a cd drive.

A cd drive is offered, internally on the non-retina and externally on the retina.

You do it over the Internet, if you need to.

Holding down the Command and R keys whilst booting will boot into your Recovery partition on your hard drive/flash storage.

Holding down the Command, option and R keys whilst booting will boot you into Internet Recovery (booting your machine from Apple's servers).

Clinton

crampy, there's now two models of 15" MacBook Pro's: the regular updated MBP with a cd/dvd drive, and the Retina Display MBP without a cd/dvd drive.

On the other hand, I have not put a disc in a drive for months, maybe years, why should I carry one around constantly when I don't use it...

...and when the space it occupies could be used instead to provide greater battery capacity, more efficient cooling airflow, and more and better-distributed ports, all of which are provided in the Retina MBP. Why indeed?

Every computer provides a considered balance between features, price, size, weight, power, expandability, accessibility, upgradeabilty, style, and probably other attributes I'm forgetting to mention. The computer that balances all those attributes in the way that best suits its prospective user is the one for that user to buy, regardless of what brand or model it turns out to be.

Upon the release of OSX 10.7 (Lion) Apple started marking a recovery partition which you would wipe disks, reinstall OSX, repair disks, etc. Lion is only available from the App Store, so a DVD isn't even included with the computer upon shipment. It is suggested to keep a USB flash drive containing a recovery disk on it, so that if you were ever to mess up your harddrive and wipe it accidently, you may recover. Although, I do not agree with removing the optical drive from the MBP, since apple still offers the non-retina model with an optical drive, I don't mind. I was surprised to see they no longer offer a 17" option, although, this was anticipated because of the lack of sales. Most people looking for a portable computer do not wish to carry around such a bulky device. Although the retina displays are nice, I do not see them being beneficial enough on a 15" screen, if I wanna watch something in true HD, I would want it on my 40" HDTV. That small of a screen, you are not going to notice that much of a difference than the old monitor; granted, it is easier on the eyes, and everyone's love of the ipad and iphone retina displays has pushed this, it is simply unnecessary for its size.

Mr. Bleach ;-) Don't get me wrong. I just swapped out my optical drive for a SSD in my 8,1 MBP. I would have liked to have had the option for a SSD/HDD dual set up from the get-go. However, at that time, big daddy Apple said 'thou must have an optical drive, and no - absolutely no SSD'. Now, of course, it is so plain to see that now in 2012 optical drives are totally ancient technology that no one in their right mind has any need for. But, in 2011... well, then EVERY laptop save the Air (because that wasn't a real computer anyhow) needed one. It was oh so clear.

I know many many people who would (and do currently) find the idea of no optical drive beyond the pale. I understand why, too. There still isn't a real alternative to the disk for easy reliable storage, transport, exchange, and trade at a physical level. This has value. I do imagine eventually SDs and other solid state devices will universally replace the optical disk - but this hasn't happened yet.

So, I find all this talk of things 'going by the wayside' to be so much hot air and certainly a poor justification for this decision. We can't predict the future - and I hardly see any big market shift to justfy why in 2011 Opticals needed to be universal kit, and in 2012 they don't. The obvious solution: consumer choice in a variety of models until the market sorts our what is or is not needed...

But the designers at Apple - waxing philosophical about seemless software hardware integration - deem themselves fit to make these decisions for us. And that is annoying.

I totally get it... CD/DVDs ARE going away. I guess my only concern is that the rest of the business world may not be as readily capable of integrating their systems to handle a strictly download/upload/cloud-based model. The only example I have pertains to my specific issue (and I'm totally aware that Apple is NOT basing their business decisions on MY needs;-)

I'm a sports and entertainment photographer and I thought that this latest technology was made for professions closer to mine. Therefore, the new retina display is ideal. However, many of my college teams prefer that I burn them a copy of my edited images immediately following events. A lot of my business also comes from the parents of these athletes, who know very little about FTP servers, etc.

Again, I know my examples are specific to ME and realize that there are options (i.e. purchase an external drive), but it would sure be nice to have the latest technology with the option of having the cd drive, and not having to worry about adding another piece of hardware to my already full camera/computer bag.

As it stands, I carry no more than my camera and laptop on the field. I currently shoot the event, run over to my laptop, insert my CF card in my 2 ounce card reader, edit, burn, eject, deliver. (CD is already waiting for me in the "internal" drive.) But I guess I'll need to change my workflow to include carrying the extra hardware, which for now is unfortunate. I would pay for the option!

Woldi wrote:

Recovery partition did not work and it took forever. Superdrive is not an option and looks like all models will be without CD drive in the near future.

That was not a very helpful comment!

Apple make 4 new models of MBP with Superdrive, buy one of them.

Here's the 15", and there is a 13" as well (2 of each)

The retina display MBPro is the one WITHOUT a superdrive; however, both the 15" and 13" NON-RETINA display MBPs still have a super/drive. I prefer to watch my blueray DVD movies in flight or when my flight is delayed or cancelled and there are no "hot-spots" so I'm a little old fashioned in wanting to be sure I can go "old school" and watch a movie or review a sales training session or seminars that were purchased on DVD from a couple years ago. Backwards compatability is important to me I guess until I am forced to take the time and burn ALL of my library to digital. Hope this helps! 😎

Chris Milligan wrote:

Not only is there no CD drive, but no Mac OS installation disk. What if I have to reload my OS?

You do that from the Recovery Partition provided for the task.