I could not test the handling on many machines I had a 2009 17-inch MacBook Pro (when working), a 2006 MacBook (which does not work) and a 2010 Mac mini on which the hack is unnecessary. But finally, I found it to be more practical than the other drives I tested. It also has two drawbacks: it is quite expensive and its USB cable is ridiculously short and non-removable. It also uses a slot-in, more convenient than fragile drawers, it can play a DVD without changing the DVD drive, as it is considered as 'Apple-supplied drive' by the system and responds to the Eject button on Apple keyboards. The first one is that it is quite nice-looking. It was long believed it was due to a hardware limitation, but it is actually due to Mac OS X, as we shall see.įirst of all, why use the Apple drive? There are several reasons. Since the launch of the MacBook Air, Apple produces a nice external optical drive, which unfortunately does not work on every machine only MacBook Air and some Mac mini models.