I got a mac mini running 10.4.11 with the optical drive busted and i'm trying to upgrade to 10.6 using the Apple dvd and have a brand new external superdrive but the mini will not recognize the drive since it has a built in..i'm trying to find a work around.
Mac mini, iOS 4
Not all External Disc Drives are OS X compatible, what brand and model superdrive are you trying to use?
I'm using a brand new Apple USB Superdrive MD564ZM/A..Apple Care said that Minis that are built-in w an optical drive do not recognize a USB DVD drive. But perhaps it is an issue with 10.4 running on the Mini.
Put the white Retail Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD into the USB Superdrive and restart your Mac. When you hear the chime hold the Option key until it starts up in Startup Manager and then select the Mac OS X Install DVD.
The mini is not powering up the superdrive via the usb port at all so I cannot even insert the dvd in to do the option key.
Have you tried another USB port?
Are other USB devices working when you connect them to your Mini?
If not, reset the SMC > Resetting the System Management Controller only in step 3 wait 5 minutes instead of 15 seconds.
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds. 5 minutes.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
It won't work. I tried to get one of those drives to work with my 2010 iMac, but it just ignored it. It is a firmware thing and machines with an internal drive won't read the Apple USB drives.
That still didn't work..I guess the post by Silly rabbit gives the final outcome to this..thx for the help though..I appreciate it.
That seals the deal for me then..drive is going back to Apple as a return. Thank you.
Great info S R, makes you wonder what that were thinking about when they did that.
Heck' I have an LG GE24LU20 and have access to it on both my iMac and Mac Mini in any OS X, as well as the option to use ithe LG, the Internal Drive or both at the same time.
I realize this says "solved", but it's not.
To get the external superdrive to be recognized there are several viable means. You can manually edit one of the com.apple.boot configuration files, but the easiest way I have found is to just type sudo nvram boot-args="mbasd=1" into terminal, then do a hard reboot. (Disclaimer: I haven't researched into exactly what all that does yet).
You will have to do a hard reboot, verify that the drive is working, then do a soft reboot while holding the 'option' key. The reason for the soft reboot is because the firmware will still be loaded with your boot-args set, so it will still be able to see the drive during boot.
I've tried this and it works to access the drive. I have not tried to upgrade with it, so it may not completely work for what you are trying to do.
Thankyou quetzal_7!
I have an iMac 24-inch, early 2009 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.8.4 and the internal superdrive is kaput (apparently these optical drives had some problems... the cost of having it fixed out of warranty prompted me to get an $80 external instead).
I purchased an external Superdrive (MD564ZM/A) and had the same problem, the external seemed DOA (but I heard a faint soft "click" whenever I plugged it into the USB so there were apparent, if faint, signs of life...
...So I searched and tried the unplug/replug/reboot (with various keys pressed upon reboot just in case) to no avail. Searched more on this forum, and found your post.
SO... I tried the sudo nvram boot-args="mbasd=1" terminal command, hard reboot then soft reboot (no need for holding down "option" or checking after hard reboot to see if the drive was working... I forgot both those steps and it still worked.)
I have both optical drives showing in the hardware info Disc Burning device list now and the external actually works fine.
(imagines the terminal command as some sort of spoken-in-a-low-voice incantation... and hey, presto!)
Open Terminal, you must have a password set on your Mac or this will not work
Paste the below line;
sudo nvram boot-args="mbasd=1"
press Return
type in your password (you will not see the cursor moving)
press Return
Restart, it provides more power to the usb ports.
Worked for me on a 2008 iMac
How do I get a USB Superdrive to work with a Mac Mini that was built with an optical drive?
