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    Macbook Pro (Retina) BIOS/EFI & Optical Drives...

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by toxicnerve, Jun 28, 2012.

  1. toxicnerve

    toxicnerve Notebook Guru

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    Hi all,

    Quick question for the panel:

    Is it true that the BIOS (or is it EFI on these machines) on a Macbook Pro will only allow you to boot from an external optical drive if it is the Apple SuperDrive?

    Does that mean 3rd party optical drives are useless if you want to boot from them?

    Or have I got my wires crossed, will any external optical drive (including BD-ROM/RW drives) be ok for booting purposes?

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Cheers,

    tn
     
    toxicnerve, Jun 28, 2012
    #1
  2. doh123

    doh123 Without ME its just AWESO

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    Many people claim this... and they have trouble depending on make and model, so I cannot speak for everyone/everything, but I've booted up off discs before in Plextor DVD burner USB drives on a couple Macbook Pros with no issues.
     
    doh123, Jun 28, 2012
    #2
  3. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a Sony DRX-840UL external drive and have never had any issues using it with any of my Macs.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jun 28, 2012
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  4. toxicnerve

    toxicnerve Notebook Guru

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    Can you boot from it though?
     
    toxicnerve, Jun 29, 2012
    #4
  5. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'll check in a few days when our 2012 MBA arrives. I need to go get some dual layer disks.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jun 29, 2012
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  6. toxicnerve

    toxicnerve Notebook Guru

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    Thanks. Would appreciate that.
     
    toxicnerve, Jun 30, 2012
    #6