USB driven optical drive?

[wave rider]

Since I cannot get my late 2008 MBP to boot up, I find myself in need of an optical drive for my iMac. Suggestions? Thanks!

[jdc]

Our lovely sponsor has one for $35

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/LG/P60NS50/

Tons on amazon or newegg, $20 and up

[Robert M]

Wave,



I have the LG GP70NS50. It was the upgrade to the LG Wirecutter recommends. Got a super deal on it at the time. Works great! Wouldn't pay full price for an optical drive, though. If I hadn't found the deal, I'd've gone to the other version of the LG drive.

Robert

[mrlynn]

When the optical drive in my 2010 died, I bought this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FB6...le?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Seems to be no longer available. This one looks the same, just with a different name, and is $10 cheaper:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K13XZWX/ref...il_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07K13XZWX&pd_rd_w=XNImQ&pf_rd_p=45a72588-80f7-4414-9851-786f6c16d42b&pd_rd_wg=q1gAW&pf_rd_r=F0XSFETTX3K47FWNQPB7&pd_rd_r=6f88b63d-8ac9-424b-a909-1e153c6dabc3&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyUllVSDdNWEVaN1RHJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUExMDE5MjAwMVNXQjBZTFdWTEQ2QyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDcwNjEyMjRWN1pXM1JMVUlQRSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

The one I bought seems a little flimsy, but works well, both reading and writing CDs and DVDs.

/Mr Lynn

[Robert M]

MrLynn,

All of the slim-style USB optical drives seem flimsy to me. Even the LG model. My primary optical drive at my office is an old 5-1/4" Pioneer drive in a very old fire enclosure. I believe it's an OWC box. Nice and sturdy and nicer than any current optical I'v seen so far.

At one time I bought a T-bolt to Firewire adapter. Can't remember why but it came in handy when I wanted to use the old optical drive with a USB 3.0/T-Bolt 2.0 iMac. It's been dandy. Still prefer it over the USB model.

Robert

[Buzz]

I have an older Apple USB Superdrive (the one w/ the Apple logo on it) that I got after putting data doublers in a couple of MBP's, so that they could still have optical access as needed. For an iMac, I would think a full size drive would be fine, since it doesn't need to be portable. I gave a bunch of them to Racer X and Harbourmaster awhile back, otherwise I'd send you one for shipping. I still have a pull from an MBP, but w/ shipping and getting an enclosure for it, the solutions noted above are probably more practical. No clue whether Racer or Hmaster have any stock left, but you may want to reach out to them.
==

[Grateful11]

I originally bought an OWC external USB burner but found a deal years ago on a Pioneer
Blu-Ray USB Drive for a really good deal. It's about a 20th the size of the full size OWC
case so the OWC is now in the basement and I'm still using the Pioneer. My internal iMac
drive also failed. It appears the Pioneer drive have gone up in price instead of down.

I searched back on here and it looks like I paid $70. for it, still running great, just used
it the other day.
https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/.../BDR-XD05B

[Forrest]

The LG DVD-RW in jdc's post has worked well for occasional use for years. $30 at Best Buy and slightly cheaper at Amazon.

[SteveG]

I've had 3 of the LG drives. The locking mechanism for the drawer fails. I currently have one because I spent $3 at Microcenter for the no-questions-asked replacement. (Which is good for 1 year, after that they charge you tax on the replacement.) They last about a year then fail to close.

Also, after a certain point the drive cannot read DVDs to rip them.

The Asus and the Dell ones have the same problem. It appears to be the same mechanism.

[RAMd®d]

I've got two cheapies from AMZ. One is a CD/DVD, the other is Blu-Ray.

I have no idea if the latter plays BD discs as I've never found software (free) that'll read the drive.

It some point I'd like to have a full size optical drive (like the old Pioneer 106, etc., that we stuffed in our Macs. For once, I'd like a DVD drive that reads/writes at at least 12x if not faster.