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Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

OK

Written by CH from Newnan

Nov 3, 2009

I've bought this along with the MBA and when I had to install the new Snow Leopard that shipped with the air, it took a few hours where on the Macbook pro's internal drive it goes much much faster, it also took a long time to install Ilife 9 and IWork. Also, when the drive was running it kept making a grinding noise that "never" happens on the pro drive. Once it was unable to read the disk and one time while installing Snow Leopard I had to start installation a 2nd time because it didn't install the 1st time. Although I haven't so far experienced any eject problems, I don't understand why they couldn't have put a pin hole eject button on it, in case the drive doesn't recognize the command from the laptop, I also find it ridiculous that you can't use this drive w/ another laptop (Like my Toshiba NB205 Mini) It caused me to have to buy another drive for that netbook separately and I haven't checked as to whether or not another brand or a generic drive would work with the MBA, does anyone know?

24 of 28 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Does not work with other Macs

Written by MH from Bratislava

Feb 8, 2009

The SuperDrive only works with its own MacBook Air. If you would plug it to another MacBook (not Air) it simply does not work. The same it does not work when its connected by USB hub to the MBA. I think the next time apple makes a wonderful
drive like this, they could add some more features.

But still it is pretty cool but useless.
I Have a MBA and i used tis 2 times when installing the MBA and when installing printer drivers and I now have it half a year.

170 of 189 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Good but slow

Written by GM from richmond

Nov 12, 2008

I have a new 1.86 MBA with 128gb SSD. I installed Logic Pro 8 (8 dvd's) and it took 17 hours to complete. I wiped MBA clean and reinstalled the OS - and used the remote cd feature from my iMac and the 8 dvd's installed in 3 hours and 30 minutes to the MBA. So the drive works fine - but is very slow. Other programs like Photoshop CS3 also take a very, very long time to install from the drive.

62 of 79 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

One Trick Drive

Written by CK from Chicago

Jul 8, 2008

As an owner of a MacBook Air SuperDrive I have to say it is a good external drive, but it is a bad investment. If you only own a MacBook Air, then this is the device for you. However, if you're like me and have access to a few other Macs, this drive is a dud.

But why?

Well, it only works with the Air. I can't use the drive with any other machine: MacBook, nope. iMac, nope. PowerMac G5, nope. Just the Air. Why would you care about my hardware problems? Well, here's my real-world example: the DVD drive died on my personal MacBook so I tried to use the Air SuperDrive instead. Useless. Wouldn't inject the disk. Yes, there's a lot of technical reasons for this, but the fact of the matter is that the drive shouldn't be dedicated to a single machine. Let's face it: in two years when you drop the machine and have to replace it, you'll discover that the drive won't work with the machine you've replaced it with. The MacBook Air hardware will change and render your external drive instantly obsolete.

If you only own an Air and need a battery-powered drive for watching movies on a plane (then again, if you have an Air, you probably have an iPhone and watch movies that way, but I digress...), I'd recommend this drive. However, for the rest of you out there, buy a third party USB drive that plugs into AC power and gain a whole lot of flexibility down the road. At least when you decide to change machines, you won't be stuck with a piece of hardware you can't use such as the myriad monitor adapters over the years (ADC, mini-DVI and now micro-DVI) and the Apple SCSI dock for the PowerBook Duo 210 (okay, I'm really, really old when it comes to Apple notebooks and have seen this many times before -- and never learned).

1856 of 2003 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Eject and hub functions need to be improved

Written by MO

May 16, 2008

Two things Superdirve need to be improved. One is to add a CD/DVD ejection button and the other is to make it work with a HUB or IR/Bluetooth.

I am a mouse man. I can not work on a laptop without a mouse. I just got a Mac Air, which has only one USB port. Users will be very happy if Superdrive and Mac Air can be redesigned to work with any external devices through a HUB, or through IR/Bluetooth, etc.

I have dual operation systems (MAC and MS Windows) installed. The ejection button at MAC Air does work sometimes. Therefore, an ejection button at Superdrive is preferred.

110 of 175 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Good but some missing features.

Written by JO from Mesa

May 4, 2008

1 USB port is not enough

133 of 219 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Make it work with a USB hub

Written by MF from Chicago

Feb 29, 2008

Product is great with the exception that it won't run through a USB hub and has to be hooked directly to the USB port.

54 of 72 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Suprisingly not so great!

Written by HA from MOUNT VERNON

Feb 17, 2008

This product was designed for the great MacBook Air, a product which is mind blowing, but is complimented with a product that is not so great!

The superdrive could have at least been designed to be wireless.

I am marketing manager for a manufacturing company and am required to travel a lot and attend exhibitions world wide. I need to work with CD's sometimes.

Now how impressive do you think it would be, when I start to work on my MacBook Air and access my CD, while my SuperDrive is still packed in my bag?! No cables, no unpacking, no taking up space, just one beautiful piece of mind blowing design displayed on site for everyone to feast their eyes on.... ;-)

Innovation, be it, don't just say it.

72 of 139 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Works great but sometimes won't power on using boot camp . . .

Written by SM from Americus

Feb 12, 2008

I assume it's just a temporary problem and will be fixed with a driver update or something but it's really annoying right now . . .

50 of 87 people found this useful

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Light and compact, but doesn't share well.

Written by WM from Haverhill

Feb 10, 2008

The MacBook Air SuperDrive is light and compact as advertised. It slides into a bag pocket and hardly adds any weight or bulk. And it performs as advertised, quickly and quietly.

But, it consumes the MacBook Air's only USB port and works only with that one port -- it does not work with USB hubs! With no downstream ports of its own, you can't use your SuperDrive and any other USB device at the same time. Like a keyboard or mouse, or your iPhone or iPod, or a USB printer.

This is a remarkable oversight. But if you want to install Boot Camp or play DVDs, it's the only game in town.

1347 of 1717 people found this useful