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    Will different brand USB DVD drives work with MBA?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Phil, May 7, 2008.

  1. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Phil, May 7, 2008
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  2. killer23d

    killer23d Notebook Geek

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    I believe any DVD burner will work, however you need to use Toast to work it. Otherwise the Mac won't recognize it as a burner natively. Or you can get a Lacie one.
     
    killer23d, May 7, 2008
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  3. kgeier82

    kgeier82 Notebook Deity

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    Toast is OPTIONAL with any external I have ever used. No problems with any of my drives. Disk util works fine with all of them along with apples built in burn folder setup
     
    kgeier82, May 7, 2008
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  4. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    But for Air it is stated that for installing XP the Apple Superdrive is necessary.

    So I guess this is not true.

    Did anyone actually do it, installing XP on MBA with 3rd party DVD drive?

    I found that for exmaple the LG http://uk.lge.com/products/model/detail/dvdrewriter_gsae50l.jhtml
    does not mention OS X support at all.
     
    Phil, May 7, 2008
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  5. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Ok I got my LG drive GSA-E50L.

    It seems to work fine in Windows and OS X. For booting it does work with the OS X dvd's.

    However, it refuses to boot from a Windows XP installation disk.

    I've tried different boot disks aswell.

    When I boot pressing the option key, the DVD drive is one of the options. It says "Windows CD". I then choose it. It starts reading the CD and then the apple sign is displayed. The apple sign changes into a stop sign and goes back to the apple sign again.

    Does anyone know what is going on?

    Has anyone been able to boot from a Windows disk with a non Apple USB drive?
     
    Phil, May 9, 2008
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  6. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    The only thing that is really special about the Apple USB burner is that it can be run without external power.

    Phil, I'm not following you... You cannot boot from a XP disc on an Apple. You'd have to boot into bootcamp and THEN run then boot from the XP disc.
     
    hollownail, May 9, 2008
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  7. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Well...

    The LG also runs on USB power, no external power.

    The only thing that is special about the Air Superdrive is that it only works on Air, not on other Mac, not on other PC.
    Ok I understand because I did not explain very well. I will try one more time.

    I installed with bootcamp Win XP on my Air, and it's setup to always boot Windows.

    First I had an Air Superdrive. If I put in a Acronis Boot CD (windows app), I would get into the menu of Acronis. (It would not work however, the menu was frozen, i expect bc of some driver issues with keyboard)

    Now if I do the same thing with the LG, I don't get into the menu of Acronis at all. So hence my assumption was the Air will not boot from the LG.

    Now the real test will be, am I able to install XP SP 2 on the Air, using the LG drive. I might update later.
     
    Phil, May 9, 2008
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  8. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    I've forgotten... are you able to access the "bios" when you boot into bootcamp?
    The issue of not being able to access the LG drive in the windows bootup sequence maybe a restriction of the fake bios that they've implemented.
    still, it should see it as an atapi drive at the least... odd...

    But I still don't understand how you are getting an apple sign when you are booting under bootcamp. It should give you a dos error...
     
    hollownail, May 9, 2008
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  9. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    It's this menu that you get when you press "option"key at boot up.

    It's show Macintosh Hd, Windows, Windows CD.

    Update: I tried installing Windows from the LG drive. No go.

    Ok so maybe the bios will give some options? How do I get in the bios?
     
    Phil, May 9, 2008
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  10. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    You don't boot from teh windows CD nor any other windows apps in there.

    You have to boot into bootcamp first. Before it gets to the loading screen, you have to interrupt it to boot off cd.

    don't remember the details of how to do that, but it should say theres a bootable cd in the drive and hit any key to boot from disc.

    It may also be that the MBA has special drivers for the apple dvd drive that does let it shortcut to the bootcamp startup when you try to boot from a windows based cd.
     
    hollownail, May 9, 2008
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  11. stealthsniper96

    stealthsniper96 What Was I Thinkin'?

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    OP- the best way to tell whether or not it'll work is to look where it says what OS's it supports. The first one only has windows, and the second one lists OS X.
     
    stealthsniper96, May 9, 2008
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  12. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    If it only would be that simple...

    Unfortunately it's not. For example: this one does work:
    http://www.mysimon.com/9025-11616_8-45691665.html

    And the LG drive I have does boot OS X cd's, but not windows.
     
    Phil, May 10, 2008
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  13. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Now I got a Samsung SE-S204 external DVD burner instead, and it's working fine.

    Installing bootcamp worked like it's supposed to work.

    This drive is not USB powered though.
     
    Phil, May 13, 2008
    #13