Talk:SuperDrive

Drive Specs

The paragraph listing the specs for the CD/DVD superdrive for each particular Mac would probably be much more digestable if it was a table. (I'll come back and give it a try myself, when I have time.) - —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.76.32.145 (talk • contribs)

I don't see a problem with the current format, it's actually quite informative. Can I delete the tag? Does anyone object? — Aldaron • T/C 17:48, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

I just found the table very useful (on my first visit to the article). I think you should put it back in. Bjartmarr (talk) 01:53, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I remember reading once that if you're using DVD-R discs rated at a different speed than the SuperDrive, it'll burn them at 1x speed. For example, a 4x SuperDrive will burn 2x DVD-R media at 1x. Has anyone else heard this, or am I misremembering? - Brian Kendig 00:58, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

I think a 2x SuperDrive will burn 4x discs at 1x, not the other way around. This is because 2x DVD-R wasn't really a standard; 2x drives just shipped with a list of disc IDs to write at 2x and wrote anything else at 1x. Kufat 04:17, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Also, don't try to use 4x discs on a 2x drive unless the firmware has been updated, or bad things will go wrong. Kufat 04:18, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Connection to main board

How is the current MacPro SuperDrive connected to the main board? SATA? PATA? Is it possible to connect a fifth hard-disk to the MacPro using the connection for the 2nd SuperDrive? THANKS -- Michael Janich 09:09, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The current optical drives on the Mac Pro use an ATA interface. This may change in the future, as Apple provides two SATA ports near the optical drive cage. While I have not yet tried it, there should be no problem in adding hard drives on those SATA channels. Freedomlinux 01:19, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

SuperDrive Criticisms

The SuperDrive appears to work only when connected to the USB port on the MBA. This is a major problem if you have 50+ gig in pics and music on a remote hard drive that you might like to burn to the disc. See the problem? One USB port on the MBA. Couldn't the brains at Apple create some means of allowing the SuperDrive to function on a powered USB hub? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.77.108.72 (talk) 17:01, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

SuperDrive floppy disk drive and CAV

The article currently states that the SuperDrive floppy drive retained compatibility with older 400/800 kB Mac disk formats that used zoned CAV (constant angular velocity) recording. I had thought that those older Mac formats used a variable angular velocity. Can someone more knowledgeable confirm or deny? The floppy disk guide at MacRumors and this table on the comp.sys.apple2 Apple II diskette FAQ would seem to indicate a variable RPM on the 400/800 kB 3.5 Macintosh drives. --Screwtop (talk) 14:03, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

[I own a Mac II mentioned in the article, and bought the ROM/drive upgrade.] The original floppy format (400K/800K) grouped the 80 tracks into 6 zones, 14-15 tracks/zone. The floppy drives were spun at a different rate in each zone, an attempt to keep the floppy surface speed nearly constant with regard to the read/write head. When the drive seeks within a zone, the speed remains constant. The drives themselves supported a continuous wide range in speed, almost analog. Using an early Apple Mac drive utility, they could be spun up and the speed finely adjusted on the fly. The outermost zone would run at the slowest speed, also had the benefit of allowing a few more sectors around the track than the inner zones. Apple got the extra 80K from this, so a DOS 720K could be reformatted as an Mac 800K (about 10% greater capacity). If Apple had offered a zone format for the FDHD, it could have held 1600K! I've always wondered if a floppy driver hack could achieve this. With Apple's renown hardware design simplicity, I wouldn't be surprised if this could be done. Dtvjho (talk) 01:27, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

SuperDrive floppy disk drive and SWIM chip

The article states that the SuperDrive floppy upgrade for the MacII and SE replaced the IWM disk controller with a SWIM. I don't know about the Mac II, but I don't think this is right for the SE. My SE is a first-generation model (1986 copyright date printed on the motherboard) that shipped with 800K drives. I upgraded this computer to 1.44M drives myself. The drives alone behaved as 800K drives when first installed. I transplanted the ROM chips from a later model SE (1988 copyright on its motherboard) into mine and got support for the 1.44M drives. I did not replace any other chips. So, at least on the SE, a ROM upgrade is all that is needed to add a Superdrive. Shamino (talk) 15:03, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

This article should be split in two

It is about two different completely things that happen to share the same name. Apple's SuperDrive floppy drives and Apple's SuperDrive optical drives have nothing in common with each other except for the fact that Apple decided to reuse one of their brand names. Mr248 (talk) 23:32, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

"Super Multi" (a type of DVD recorder for PCs/Laptops) redirects here, while it really should not ...

The following link redirects here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Super_Multi

It should be a totally different article, which is currently non-existant, about DVD burning drives. After 15 minutes of intense research I finally found out what the "Super Multi" label or "3D writing" in the plastic on the front of my DVD burners means, namely that they are capable of burning i.e. creating/writing empty/recordable dual layer DVD-R media. I used to think that such drives would be all labelled with "DVD-R DL", which indeed they used to be until the year 2008/09 or so, whereas from 2010 onwards (possibly earlier) they started branding these drives as "DVD Super Multi Recorder" on their fronts, or just "Super Multi" (there are two different graphic labels for that, and both are often used together on a single drive front). So there should be a dedicated article about this topic. The "SuperDrive" (floppy type) talked about here is a total exotic product, by the way, whereas DVD-R DL drives are or were much more widespread and pretty much standard in any PC from 2006 or so up to around 2016. -- Alexey Topol (talk) 20:18, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

I agree fullhearted. These are two different things and it should have its own article. I myself have such a Super Multi drive by LG, while this article is talking about something completly different from Apple. We should restore the original Super Multi article and remove its redirect. ColdCase (talk) 15:55, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

 Done. Fixed it. CDVDBD (talk) 16:10, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Recently discontinued without any official announcement by Apple

Last month without any official announcement, Apple silently discontinued the external SuperDrive, as evidenced by the Sold Out marking on their store page. This effectively marks the end of Apple's membership with the DVD Forum and DVD+RW Alliance since the late-1990s.

Here are official sources that have confirmed the silent discontinuation:

https://9to5mac.com/2024/08/05/apple-superdrive-discontinued/

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/06/apple-superdrive-could-be-discontinued/

https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/08/05/end-of-an-era-apples-superdrive-has-finally-sold-out-after-16-years

This article definitely needs to be updated to indicate the silent discontinuation last month. DeveloperPudú (talk) 19:29, 28 September 2024 (UTC)