What external DVD drive should I use my MBP's internal drive is broken?

Question

I've got an old MBP where the internal drive starts to refuse reading discs and stopped burning discs a while ago.

Now I'm thinking about getting an external drive (DVD-RW, USB or Firewire). Most of these devices don't explicitly mention Mac compatibility. According to this forum post, most of the drives should be compatible though.

I was wondering if there's some sort of "official" compatibility list for different versions of Mac OS X? I also read somewhere that OS X 10.5 and 10.6 are compatible with most of the external drives... is there some information about which devices won't work?

Answer 1

Modern and semi modern CD Drives (USB) are 100% compatible with OSX since they are really an ATA drive, connected through USB.

Bluetooth and LightScribe technology will be another story, but the drive, as a reader/recorder ought to work without problems. In fact, if you ever find one that doesn't work, it would be a nice discovery.

Answer 2

I've never heard of an external drive that wouldn't work.