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Does anyone use their optical drive anymore?

I use it. Mainly to archive and create .dmg's of the SW distributed on DVD. DVD's are so slow for installs. Adobe Master collection on DVD takes like 2 Hours. 15-20 min over GigE .dmg's. Also to rip CD's. Being stuck with externals wouldn't be all that bad. But a disc drive of some kind is still needed. I don't mind online distro I mind when the computer does things on your behalf like erasing the installer without warning so you have to re-download it. Full-on Windows move "Helping Grandma... get in the way".
 
I used one a few days ago to mount my m$ office disk to my flash drive. But that was the first time in about a year that I've used it.
 
I rip CDs to my music library.

Occasionally I play a movie or something on my Mac Pro.

Mainly I burn archival backups of my data to bluray media.
 
People hardly need optical drive anymore. For whatever reason, optical disk need is declining.

Just like floppy on computer. But it wouldn't die overnight. We're in transition era. Besides, some things still can't be replaced by diskless media.
High quality movie for collector items still need bluray.
Simple photo backup still needs optical discs for quick storage/viewing.

It might be dying, but I still need it. You don't know when you're going to need it most. Better be prepared than sorry.
 
No.

The last time I used the optical drive in my Mac (2011 iMac) was shortly after I got it last July and I was clean installing Snow Leopard and partitioning the hard drive to have multiple installs of OS X. Shortly thereafter, I used it to install iWork '08 and Photoshop CS2. After that however, I have yet to use it. I do see myself using it within the next year to rip and digitize my DVD collection (once hard drive prices come back down in price!).
 
I use my optical drive almost daily. Burning CDs/DVDs for clients and printers (don't ask me why, some prefer this and not a ftp-server), importing music CDs and film DVDs (I prefer to purchase physical copies without DRM), installing games (installing from a DVD is much faster than downloading 10 gb via steam :rolleyes: - that's also the reason why I prefer to order large productivity software like Adobe Creative Suite or Cinema 4D on disks).

I could live without an optical drive in my laptop, I'd prefer a machine that has one built in though. I will not buy an iMac again, so I don't care if these machines don't have one anymore. I see no reason to drop it in the Mac Pro, there is plenty of space in a tower, that's what it's made for.

One more thing about laptops, right now I'd have to pay more than € 250 on top of the purchase price of a mbp to make it useable. Matte screen and 2-3 different thunderbolt to various display ports adapters. Having to buy an external drive too would push this number to above € 300 - a point where I'd seriously consider buying another mbp.
 
I am thinking of yanking the bluray drive that is in my MP 2008, I hardly ever use it and since getting an SSD and a mount from OWC that will hold both my SSD and a 3.5" HHD, I think I will yank it.

For fun I just connected an external USB Samsung optical drive I've had for awhile and to my surprise OS X saw it and it works, I am burning a DVD (using TOAST) to it right now, pretty impressive, i think anyway.

So now, even if I do yank my bluray drive ( never burn bluray's anyway, thought I would, but it never happened) I can still plug in this external USB optical drive when I need to.
 
I use my optical drive to burn a stack of DVDs perhaps once every since months. Otherwise, it goes forlorn and unwanted.
 
I have two on the go at once and I am using them all the time. I used to have three, but I took out my second internal so I could power a second video card to run all my monitors.
 
VirtualRain said:
I may rip mine out in favor of another HD... And I'm having a tough time thinking of anything that might make me regret it :eek:

I'm on Lion so even an OS reinstall won't use it and all my software is downloaded (eg. Mac App Store). :confused:
Click to expand...

Rip it out and get an external. Took mine out soon as I got it, used a couple of mounts from OWC to install two SSDs and two Samsung 2TB eco drives. Four more 2TB ecos in the main bays. SSDs for boot, Samsungs for 10TB usable storage (ZFS raidz). Works great.
 
firedownunder said:
Rip it out and get an external. Took mine out soon as I got it, used a couple of mounts from OWC to install two SSDs and two Samsung 2TB eco drives. Four more 2TB ecos in the main bays. SSDs for boot, Samsungs for 10TB usable storage (ZFS raidz). Works great.
Click to expand...

What RAID card are you using?
 
In the last two week have used mine to;

Rip "Knowing" BluRay to MKV on the Lion HD.
Rip "The Last Minzy" with RipIt on Lion.
Install TurboTax on the W7 HD.
Install Snow Leopard.
Install PS CS5 on the Snow Leopard HD.
Install Office 2011 on the Snow Leopard HD.
Install iLife on the Snow Leopard HD.
 
Great question, I never thought about it before. so I had to track my usage, found that. I use mine almost everyday for some sort of another game backups, and work file backups. but other than that I go external.

I don't think I could go without though, how weird.
 
Not weird at all. Tech wants to push users out way prematurely. Cloud based is the future. Great, where are all the pipes to deal with all the bandwidth? When will data caps be demolished, both server and residential? Until that time it is empty rhetoric and I need a freakin' DVD drive.
 
ashman70 said:
What RAID card are you using?
Click to expand...

I use a Highpoint Rocket 622 card ($25) for two additional internal Sata data connectors, a Sata splitter (splits the Apple one piece connector into separate data and power connectors), and a 3 way power splitter (converts one into three) connected to one of the optical ports to provide power. Two long Sata cables run from card, behind intake fan and through small opening into optical bay. No "raid controller" as it were. MacZFS is a file system (like HFS+) that gives raid like data protection; download and configure from terminal. More information here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1317220/

There's a link at the bottom of the article with more info, and others (Nanofrog, etc.) have posted info in this forum. The linked article is about Ten's Compliment version of ZFS, which provides a gui for those not comfortable using terminal. I just got tired of waiting for a release, as it was rumored to be out last spring. If I get some time, I'll try and post a few pictures. You know, worth a thousand words. :cool:


P.S. No thread hijack intended!
 
Last edited:
PinkyMacGodess said:
Which BluRay drives work in Mac Pros? I thought there wasn't driver support...
Click to expand...

AFAIK, any BD drive will work as long as the tray bezel can be removed. OS support has been there a long time. Application support is hit and miss.

The main problems right now seem to be:
(1) Playback of commercial BDs, which is possible but clunky.
(2) Drives "disappearing" after MP coming out of sleep.
(3) On some model BD drives, periodic spinup of the motor when there is no disc present.
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
Which BluRay drives work in Mac Pros? I thought there wasn't driver support...
Click to expand...
Mine is an LG 10x Blu-ray burner from OWC: HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH10LS30

Came with instructions for removing bezel, and works as advertised without any drivers to load. I just pulled stock superdrive out and put this one in.

I have a RAID so I don't sleep my Mac, but if you did want to sleep your Mac and it won't sleep, you can just put a blank disc in the tray and close it... it will sleep normally.

Incidentally, I suddenly started using my drive a lot more after stupidly getting iTunes Match. Had to re-rip a bunch of CDs that it screwed up by replacing correct tracks with either live versions or clean versions with cussing bleeps and junk. :mad:
 
Does anyone use their optical drive anymore?

Yep, all the time. I use HD's too.

If Apple believes I will trust their "cloud" servers with with my photo files they would be wrong.
 
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