External DVD drive?

[SolarPoweredX]

Yeah, so my 12" PowerBook's SuperDrive just failed (*all* media goes in, drive makes really scary stress sounds, spits media out), so rather than try to fix or go to Apple and have them tell me it'll cost $7 zillion dollars to replace it (out of warranty, no Applecare, etc, etc), I'll just buy an external one. Now in my brief research, Firewire seems to be the way to go, as I'll be able to boot from the device (should I need to reinstall Tiger) and I can get iTunes and iEverythingElse to use it via third party prrgrams (patchburn).

So what's my best bet? I'd like to get one of those new DL drives (wave of the future~!) and not spend more than $150. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks.

EDITitional info: Let's say my internal hard drive crashes. Would my external DVD drive still be able to boot my PB even though its latest driver would have been lost in the crash?

 

[telecomm]

Can't suggest anything on the burner front, but I recently had similar problems with my 12 PB combo drive. I took a vacuum cleaner attachment and tried to vacuum out the slot... that actually seemed to help. Whenever I've had drive problems it's been due to dust/debris affecting the lense. This might not help you, but it's worth a try.

 

[katie ta achoo]

EDITitional info: Let's say my internal hard drive crashes. Would my external DVD drive still be able to boot my PB even though its latest driver would have been lost in the crash?

OMG! PUNS!!! I love it!

An external drive would be the ticket for watching movies or burning CDs, yada yada yada. I'm not too sure about the booting from it, though..
If you need to, put a copy of the OS on your iPod and boot from that.

Or... just try it as soon as you get your external drive.

 

[SolarPoweredX]

OMG! PUNS!!! I love it!

An external drive would be the ticket for watching movies or burning CDs, yada yada yada. I'm not too sure about the booting from it, though..
If you need to, put a copy of the OS on your iPod and boot from that.

Or... just try it as soon as you get your external drive.

Yeah, I masked my anger with stupidity. But if I can boot off an iPod (a glorified external hard drive), why couldn't I be able to boot off any other FireWire device?

 

[omiemac]

I was looking at the LighScribe DVD's. Does any one here have one or tried it, are this the best lighscribe? for the Tiger 10.4.1

They sound pretty good for the price, you can burn DL DVD, and burn a picture on top of the blanc media. That sounds awsome check the link http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10548

 

[deebster]

You will be able to boot your PB from an external burner. If it is not already natively supported by OS X (Tiger adds many more drives than earlier OS X builds did) then download Patchburn (from vt or macupdate etc) and it will add full support.

You could either get an 'external' firewire drive, or an internal and a firewire box. They amount to exactly the same thing (the majority of externals are just an internal in a box), just depends if you want to do it separately or not.

The BenQ 1620 / 1640 get great reviews on the cdfreaks forum, but basically any burner will work.

 

[Artful Dodger]

omiemac
I was looking at the LighScribe DVD's. Does any one here have one or tried it, are this the best lighscribe? for the Tiger 10.4.1

They sound pretty good for the price, you can burn DL DVD, and burn a picture on top of the blanc media. That sounds awsome check the link http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10548

Hi, look under my name at the posts I've made on this also see sig. I went with the LaCie but bought a recon for $109, reason for not getting the Lightscribe at the time was simple "the media only comes in +R format for DVDs" and was somewhat $$$. Time will change that but by then maybe Blue Ray or who knows Also the discs (From what I've seen) look like a nice new penny, now let them sit around for some time after being touched and used in general and they start to darken. They would look great if the tops were a true "silver color".

If you get a LaCie you won't need PatchBurn to use iDVD as it works with all my iLife apps. The DL feature is nice but again media is still high but for family videos it's nice to have.

 

[SolarPoweredX]

You will be able to boot your PB from an external burner. If it is not already natively supported by OS X (Tiger adds many more drives than earlier OS X builds did) then download Patchburn (from vt or macupdate etc) and it will add full support.

You could either get an 'external' firewire drive, or an internal and a firewire box. They amount to exactly the same thing (the majority of externals are just an internal in a box), just depends if you want to do it separately or not.

The BenQ 1620 / 1640 get great reviews on the cdfreaks forum, but basically any burner will work.

How difficult is it to put an internal drive in an enclosure? Would I save any money by going that route?

 

[Artful Dodger]

SolarPoweredX

How difficult is it to put an internal drive in an enclosure? Would I save any money by going that route?

Not very hard, somewhat cheap say around $30 for the case then $65-85 for the burner so for around $75-$100 you can do it

 

[comictimes]

Can't suggest anything on the burner front, but I recently had similar problems with my 12 PB combo drive. I took a vacuum cleaner attachment and tried to vacuum out the slot... that actually seemed to help. Whenever I've had drive problems it's been due to dust/debris affecting the lense. This might not help you, but it's worth a try.

OH. MY. GOD.

telecomm you are GOD. I found this thread while searching for possible ways to reinstall off a usb external drive cause my drive hasn't worked for a good 6 months, and the vacuum cleaner actually WORKS. I can not believe it.

So if anyone else's cd drive isn't working, try that.

wow.