Apple USB SuperDrive with iMac question

Probably not. First it has to be recognized by the Mac side in order to assign it to the VM as a virtual device.

Check Other World Computing http://www.macsales.com/ for DVD burners in addition to LaCie. They have many varieties and prices. I use an external writer for all my burning. And yes, you can copy from the Superdrive to an external writer and vice-versa.

For what it's worth I just use, and have for many year with many computer model, a standard external DVD burner in a really cheap USB external case. Ugly, noisy and messy but for the 2 times a year I need to use a burner it works great.

As I've not connected it to a current iMac (they've all had working SuperDrives so there was no need to) and it's hard to know exactly why Apple's SuperDrive doesn't work, I can't so I can't give any guarantees something else will work. All I can say is that it's worked with everything I've plugged it in to, including older iMacs.

Ultimately you can assume that there is a specific problem with Apple's drive else assume there a problem with all drives. If you want something better than I can give then maybe you should find someone with a external powered drive for your to try else go to a shop that also sells macs so they can plug it in in-store to show you it working.

It's easy to make a superdrive work with any mac. Open the terminal, login, and type:

sudo nvram boot-args=”mbasd=1″

restart your mac, and presto, it will work

There was nothing on the box to say it would not work on iMac, I asked the guy in store in the apple section. Now what. So my DVD writer has started to fail and hardly ever used and now I can't use another usb drive. mmmm

See my post above. It only takes a few minutes and it works. There is nothing but a system flag preventing it from working.

Thank you, have done that twice and nothing. The terminal asked me for my password after entering the code, I couldn't see any characters displayed as I typed and then it just came up with my name.

😟

stephenfromhalifax,

I read with interest your post about adding a command to the Terminal that will allow a

Apple USB SuperDrive to be used with a Mac equipped with a built in Optical Drive.

Unfortunately my attempts to perform this modification were unsuccessful.

First a question: Does the SuperDrive have to be connected to the iMac when the

command is entered?

Next, Here are the steps I took. First I double clicked on the Terminal icon in the Utilities folder

in the Hard Drive and a window opened on the desk top. This first line at the top of the window

had my user name - "bash"- 80X24. The contents of the window had login information followed

on line two with user information, iMac, my user name, a $ and a rectangle.

In addition to opening a window on the desktop, a "Terminal" icon appears in the Dock and when

you click on it a number of choices appear. One of the choices is "New Command". That selection

opens a window that allows you to enter a command, choose "Run command inside a shell" (huh?)

and "Run" or "Cancel".

I decided to try the "New Command" and "Run" option but when I finished the the USB Superdrive

still wouldn't work. Perhaps there is something I'm missing here?

The drive does not need to be plugged in.

I should have been more clear with my instructions.

First, at the "~ 'your user name'$" line, type 'login' and press enter.

'Login:' will appear

type your user name (the same way you type it to log into your account on your computer) and hit enter

'Password:' will appear

type your password (the same way you type it to log into your account on your computer) and hit enter

you will now see the same line 'Computer-Name: ~UserName$'

but now you will have the access required for a sudo ('super user do') command

at this point, type:

sudo nvram boot-args=”mbasd=1″

and hit enter.

then type 'exit' and hit enter (this will log you out)

again type 'exit' and hit enter and you will see:

[Process completed]

Now restart your mac and your super drive will work.