It is kinda late to reply to this question, but here is my experience. New Macbook Pro (2015),Laptop, new superdrive. Plugged in superdrive. No image/icon on desktop. Sometime or other saw a flash of a message saying be sure to eject (by choosing Command E) . But there was no image to select in order to eject.
Anyway, Inserted CD for the printer I wanted to install. Could hear it in the superdrive. Noticed later an icon for BrotherCD. After attempting unsucessfully to install printer and giving up dragged the brother CD icon to trash and guess what! It ejected the CD from the Superdrive. I then unplugged Superdrive from the computer and got no warning message that it had been improperly ejected.(like you usually get).
SO I guess that the superdrive does not show up unless there is a DVD orCD inserted. OH!!! And Be sure to have the superdrive right side up.
there were no instructions about this - had had to look that up online also - the SILVER plain side its supposed to be up, not the black!! The ONLY hint is that the ONLY picture of the Superdrive shows the plain side up. Not clear enough for people like me!!!! Apple isn't as helpful as it used to be!