Best External Drive for the new MBA without Design Flaw

[alamgirian6329]

What would you guys recommend the best External DVD drive for MBA to keep ? The apple slim drive for MBA has very poor feedback on apple site, $79 its somewhat of a steep price to pay for a device WITHOUT emergency eject, esp. if it gets stuck on an airport while travelling (say I shut my comp. down and tossed it in the case in a hurry along with the drive and CD/DVD runngin in it), I hear that the jam is perm. and cant get the disk out since it has no emergency eject.

Any other brands that ppl have used ? Good price, but MORE importantly thin profile and relative nicer look to go with the air.

 

[DannySmurf]

I have one of these:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX25307%28ME%29.aspx

It's been dependable. But, like all non-Apple drives, requires two free USB ports to power.

 

[astrorider]

I have one of these:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX25307%28ME%29.aspx

It's been dependable. But, like all non-Apple drives, requires two free USB ports to power.

I used a Velocity Micro Blu-ray drive (reads Blu-ray, writes DVD) that only used one USB for power/data. I'd recommend it, but it died a day or so ago, a little less than 1 year after purchase. Anyway, there are drives out there that don't need two USB ports.

 

[anthonyd]

Some drives have two USB cables simply to allow for variety of computer USB ports with different power deliveries.

I got a Blu-ray burner from eBay that comes with two USB cables, but my MBP 15 and a Dell Mini 10 (I don't have it anymore) were able to burn blu-ray and DVD discs without needing the second USB cable plugged in.

 

[NintendoFan]

This Lacie one may be up your alley.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11480

 

[The Samurai]

I've been using my Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive - in fact, the only time I used it was to install Windows. Don't plan in ever using it but hey - its good for emergencies. I picked it up for £20 with 3 HD-DVD's when they (HD-DVD) lost the battle with blu-ray.

p.s. the only downside to this drive is that it doesn't burn to disc, it only reads.