Replacing DVD drive in 2009 Mini

[marclondon]

As title – I'd like to get a unit to replace the dvr-ts08PA optical drive - there are some on eBay in the UK but I'm not going to pay a lot for one. Does it have to be this exact model or is there another that will work?

M.

 

[rigormortis]

As title – I'd like to get a unit to replace the dvr-ts08PA optical drive - there are some on eBay in the UK but I'm not going to pay a lot for one. Does it have to be this exact model or is there another that will work?

M.

your mileage might vary on this one, i don't want to speak for all the drives

but , mac minis share the same drives as macbooks and macbook pros. the only difference between a macbook optical drive and a mac mini optical drive, is on a mac book drive you have to remove the railings, because the mac mini doesn't use them, also there might be a drive connector on the back that has to be detached.

i believe , but i am not sure, that some mac minis might use parallel drives and some mac minis might use serial. (pata vs sata ) but its been a while and i forgot.


once the drive is installed, you just need to check system report to make sure it says "apple shipping drive"

i bought a Apple Macbook Pro A1261 A1229 UJ-875 678-0564A DVD+RW Multi Burner Drive for my mac mini 2006 and it worked fine, and it only cost me $23 plus shipping. i didn't really throughly use the drive. but it did boot my os x dvd, which was better then the old drive was capable of doing

if you put a mac mini optical drive in a mac book pro, then you have to remove the railings from your old drive and mount them on your new drive. if you put a macbook pro drive in a mac mini, you have to remove the mac book pro railings.

 

[marclondon]

i bought a Apple Macbook Pro A1261 A1229 UJ-875 678-0564A DVD+RW Multi Burner Drive for my mac mini 2006 and it worked fine,

The 2009 is a Sata drive I think - I'm just shocked at the prices people want for them, far more than an external. But I'd like to give the Mini to the kids and it's best they have as few peripheral stuff as possible to play a few DVDs.

M.

----------

Actually you've just given me a good thought - we have two 2009 Macbook Pros and I'd forgotten they have optical drives. I expect I can take one of these and put it in the Mini...

 

[dyt1983]

edit: To remove personally identifying info not relevant to the conversation.

 

[Command]

As title – I'd like to get a unit to replace the dvr-ts08PA optical drive - there are some on eBay in the UK but I'm not going to pay a lot for one. Does it have to be this exact model or is there another that will work?

M.

Just throwing this out there for what it's worth. My 09 Mini optical drive died long ago and I just use an external (3rd party, not Apple) via USB and it's worked just fine for anything I needed it to do from OS installation to DVD/CD rip.