2009 Mac Mini with Optical Drive. Internal Drive Broken, External Drive won't read.

[alphabeta997]

So, I got my hands on a copy of Logic 9 Express, and am using a fairly new install of macOS X El Capitan, on my 2009 Mac Mini with Optical Drive. When I inserted the download disc, it would just eject it almost immediately. So I kept doing that, over and over, then I decided to look into it. Internet said to clean the drive with air. So I did. Still ejecting. Then my idiotic self bought an external USB Apple Superdrive Optical Drive, in hopes it would work. I plugged in the USB port, and it spun the drive, completing one eject cycle. Then I put in the disc. This time, it also took it in, but instead of ejecting it immediately, it spun up, then down, then beeped, 3 times in a row. About 30 seconds total. Then it finally decided to eject the disc. I read after this, from doing more research, that macs with built in Optical Drives, can only use internal Optical Drives, and not any kind of External one. I wasted $90 trying to fix this. I later got so mad at the dang thing, I took out the internal Optical Drive, and smashed it on some concrete, and tossed it out.

What Can I do to fix this? I know I am going to have to buy a new internal Optical Drive, but will it even work? The mac simply would not show the drive in Disk Utility, Finder, or anywhere it was supposed to show up. The CD & DVD section in the System Preferences still showed up though. Inside that section, it says: "When inserting Video Disc: Option (Ignore)". That was the only option I could choose. Does that have something to do with it? Is there some kind of Bogus setting I have to change to get the internal Drives to work? Clearly it wasn't just dust. In the "com.apple.Boot.plist" file, I changed the section in between <string></string>, which originally contained my external Hard Drive Expansion, to <string>mbasd=1</string>. It did nothing. On a Quora Forum, it said that changing that would allow your mac with an Internal Optical Drive, to be able to read External ones. Clearly it didn't work.

I'm stuck. I need some help. Any suggestions would be well appreciated. Thanks.

 

[theMarble]

I read after this, from doing more research, that macs with built in Optical Drives, can only use internal Optical Drives, and not any kind of External one.

I don't know where you got that from, as I've got 9 Macs made between 2002 and 2011, and every single one of them (which has an internal optical drive) can read and write/burn to an external DVD drive perfectly fine. No mods or hacks needed. Both laptops and desktops.

The Apple USB Superdrive's are known to die a bit quicker than other brand DVD drives, and I do remember someone else on either here or the MR PPC forum mentioning that the USB SuperDrive's only work on specific machines.

I personally use an external LaCie FireWire 400 DVD-RW drive. It's ancient, but it still chugs along with old PPC Macs, new Intel Macs and Windows/Linux machines. I don't know if USB DVD drives don't work as well, but I can vouch for FireWire.

If you are looking for a new internal optical drive, the main model used is the Matshita/Panasonic UJ-875A. It is a 12.5mm thick slot loader, which is different to the 9.5mm models used in the MacBook Pro, the UJ-868/898/8A8.

In the "com.apple.Boot.plist" file, I changed the section in between <string></string>, which originally contained my external Hard Drive Expansion, to <string>mbasd=1</string>. It did nothing. On a Quora Forum, it said that changing that would allow your mac with an Internal Optical Drive, to be able to read External ones. Clearly it didn't work.

Speaking from my years of experience working with Macs, that sounds like complete rubbish. As I said above, all Macs from this era are perfectly capable of both using their internal optical drive (if it has one) and using an external optical drive. I've found that Quora doesn't always have the best advice when it comes to these Macs.

I'd say that your problem was both your internal and external optical drives were dead/dying. The chances that the board that connects the optical drive to the main logic board has broken is near 0. These kinds of things don't usually die, and if it did, you wouldn't be able to boot an OS as the hard drive is connected to the same board.

My suggestions would be to first reinstall OS X from scratch, to not only have a clean install, but to also get rid of the .plist modification. After that, if you want a working optical drive, either get a new internal or external optical drive.

You should also know that you can download Logic Express 8 and Logic Studio (Logic Pro 9) for free from Macintosh Garden, as they are both now abandonware.

 

[DeltaMac]

Do (did) any other disks work in the drive?

 

[TheShortTimer]

I've found that Quora doesn't always have the best advice when it comes to these Macs.

I concluded some time ago that Quora is largely an unreliable source of information in general.

(Cue outrage from fans of Quora...)

 

[alphabeta997]

Do (did) any other disks work in the drive?

Nope. I tried 3. All known to be working.

 

[alphabeta997]

I don't know where you got that from, as I've got 9 Macs made between 2002 and 2011, and every single one of them (which has an internal optical drive) can read and write/burn to an external DVD drive perfectly fine. No mods or hacks needed. Both laptops and desktops.

The Apple USB Superdrive's are known to die a bit quicker than other brand DVD drives, and I do remember someone else on either here or the MR PPC forum mentioning that the USB SuperDrive's only work on specific machines.

I personally use an external LaCie FireWire 400 DVD-RW drive. It's ancient, but it still chugs along with old PPC Macs, new Intel Macs and Windows/Linux machines. I don't know if USB DVD drives don't work as well, but I can vouch for FireWire.

If you are looking for a new internal optical drive, the main model used is the Matshita/Panasonic UJ-875A. It is a 12.5mm thick slot loader, which is different to the 9.5mm models used in the MacBook Pro, the UJ-868/898/8A8.


Speaking from my years of experience working with Macs, that sounds like complete rubbish. As I said above, all Macs from this era are perfectly capable of both using their internal optical drive (if it has one) and using an external optical drive. I've found that Quora doesn't always have the best advice when it comes to these Macs.

I'd say that your problem was both your internal and external optical drives were dead/dying. The chances that the board that connects the optical drive to the main logic board has broken is near 0. These kinds of things don't usually die, and if it did, you wouldn't be able to boot an OS as the hard drive is connected to the same board.

My suggestions would be to first reinstall OS X from scratch, to not only have a clean install, but to also get rid of the .plist modification. After that, if you want a working optical drive, either get a new internal or external optical drive.

You should also know that you can download Logic Express 8 and Logic Studio (Logic Pro 9) for free from Macintosh Garden, as they are both now abandonware.

Ok. Well, I bought the external drive brand new, and it arrived today. It's known to be working. Somethings wrong with my mac.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Spending 90$ to revive a Mac mini 2009 is just sheer amazing.

 

[Amethyst1]

The Apple USB Superdrive's are known to die a bit quicker than other brand DVD drives, and I do remember someone else on either here or the MR PPC forum mentioning that the USB SuperDrive's only work on specific machines.

They use more power than a USB 2.0 port is guaranteed to provide. The mbasd=1 boot argument makes the drive work on (some) other Intel Macs besides the MacBook Air it’s meant to go along with.

 

[theMarble]

The mbasd=1 boot argument makes the drive work on (some) other Intel Macs besides the MacBook Air it’s meant to go along with.

Wasn't that limited to just the original "MacBook Air" USB SuperDrive from 2008? I thought that they released a rev B alongside the Retina MBP in 2012, that allowed all/more Macs to use it.

 

[alphabeta997]

Spending 90$ to revive a Mac mini 2009 is just sheer amazing.

The Mac, The Drive, A USB HUB, and Logic 9 Express all cost $90 total. Didn't specify.

 

[alphabeta997]

Does anyone have a download for not Logic Studio 9, not Logic Express 8, but Logic Express 9? That's the version I have.

 

[alphabeta997]

As has been said, I’ve used many machines with internal optical drives and never had an issue with another external drive.

I would try doing this in safe mode. You can also try disc warrior.

Sadly Safe mode, and Disc Drill, a free alternative to disc warrior, didn't work. Safe mode did nothing, and Disc Drill wouldn't show the drive, even with the disc in, for the 30 seconds it would hold it before spitting it out.

 

[alphabeta997]

The Drive was listed as working, and is a 2009 Apple Superdrive USB Optical Drive, but clearly somethings wrong.

 

[alphabeta997]

I'd Like to have this thread locked, and or removed/deleted. I tossed out the Logic Express 9 package and it's contents, as well as the DVD Drive. Found out all of them were duds. I no longer care about getting Logic, as it won't even run on my mac, as it says "PowerPC software is no longer supported".

 

[theMarble]

I no longer care about getting Logic, as it won't even run on my mac, as it says "PowerPC software is no longer supported".

Not sure what's happening there either, as Logic Express 9 is fully supported on Intel Macs, and was made years after the PowerPC transition. It's possible that your disc was corrupted.

If you still want Logic, as I mentioned earlier, you can get Logic Pro 9 from the Macintosh Garden legally w/ serial number for free, as it is now abandonware.

 

[swamprock]

@dosdude1 and his High Sierra patch has a specific patch that enables the Apple external Superdrive to work. I used it on my own 2009 Mini and can confirm that it works.