Sharing discs
If your Mac doesn't have a built-in optical drive and you need to use a CD or DVD, you can connect an external drive like the Apple USB SuperDrive. You can also share discs from the optical drive of another Mac, or from a Windows computer that has DVD or CD Sharing Setup installed. DVD or CD sharing allows you to access documents stored on these discs, and allows you to install some software.
DVD or CD sharing isn't designed for some kinds of optical media. Connect a compatible optical drive directly to your Mac if you need to use one of these discs:
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125846099/355322150.jpg)
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- Audio CDs
- Blu-ray or DVD movies
- Copy protected discs (such as some game discs)
- Recordable CDs or DVDs that you want to burn or erase
- Microsoft Windows installation discs
If you have a Microsoft Windows install disc that you want to use with Boot Camp, you can create a disc image of this disc and copy it to a USB flash drive for installation instead.
Setting up a Mac to share discs
To share discs from a Mac that has a built-in or external optical drive, use these steps:
- On the Mac that has an optical drive, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
- Click the Sharing icon in the System Preferences window.
- Make sure you've entered a name that you can easily recognize in the Computer Name field.
- Enable the checkbox for DVD or CD Sharing.
- You can also restrict who has access to your optical drive by selecting 'Ask me before allowing others to use my DVD drive.'
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125846099/948377651.jpg)
Setting up a Windows PC to share discs
To share discs from a Windows PC that has a built-in or external optical drive, use these steps:
- Download and install DVD or CD Sharing Update 1.0 for Windows.
- From Control Panel, open 'Hardware and Sound'
- Click 'DVD or CD Sharing Options.'
- Select the checkbox for DVD or CD Sharing.
- You can also restrict who has access to your optical drive by selecting 'Ask me before allowing others to use my DVD drive.'
If you're sharing discs from a Windows computer and your PC has firewall software enabled, be sure to allow access to the following programs from your firewall:
- ODSAgent
- RemoteInstallMacOSX
Use a shared DVD or CD
After you've enabled DVD or CD Sharing, you can use that computer's optical drive at any time. Insert a disc in the optical drive of the computer that's being shared. The disc should then be available on any Mac that's connected to the same network.
- On the Mac that doesn't have an optical drive, open a Finder window.
- Select Remote Disc in the Devices section of the sidebar. You should see the computer that has DVD or CD Sharing enabled.
- Double-click the computer's icon, then click Connect to see the contents of the CD or DVD available from that computer.
If you can't use a shared disc
If your Mac already has a built-in optical drive, or an external optical drive connected, you won't see the Remote Disc feature appear in the Finder or other apps.
If you're using a compatible disc and you don't see it from Remote Disc, make sure the sharing computer is turned on, is connected to the same network as your Mac, and has a compatible CD or DVD in its optical drive. If you've enabled the option to ask for permission before using the drive, click Accept on the computer that is sharing its optical drive.
Can a laptop survive in the jungle that is Real Life without a DVD drive? The terse answer is no. Ripping an audio CD or burning an iDVD slideshow disc without an optical drive is like finding a cheap tank of gas: impossible. And the wonders of digital media are a big part of the iWorld. So what was Apple thinking?
First, a bit of explanation. Today’s DVD drives are thin, but not Air thin. In order to create the stunning Air design with truly revolutionary dimensions, Apple’s engineers had to leave out the drive. However, if you own a MacBook Air, you have two choices when it comes to reading the contents of a CD or DVD: Go external, or learn to share.
Use an external USB with your MacBook Air
Some people have no problem at all toting around an external USB DVD burner with a MacBook Air. Heck, half the time, you don’t rip tracks from an audio CD or install software every day.
The folks at Cupertino want you to download your music and movies from the iTunes Store (and your applications from the App Store), so if you follow the Apple Path, you still don’t need an optical drive!
A USB SuperDrive from Apple costs a mere $100, and it can read and write DVDs as well as the built-in SuperDrive you’ll find in the MacBook and MacBook Pro.
You can also use any third-party USB DVD drive that’s compatible with Apple’s laptops and Mac OS X Lion (they’re easy to find on any online store that sells Mac external hardware).
Share a CD or DVD drive for your MacBook Air
The other option for installing software or reading a DVD on the MacBook Air is Lion’s built-in CD/DVD Sharing feature. Sharing is an option if you have a wired or wireless network with at least one of the following:
- A Macintosh running Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion
- A PC running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7: This requires you to install a Windows application supplied by Apple with your MacBook Air.
You can only read, not write, from a shared optical drive. You can’t write data to the remote drive, even if that drive is a DVD recorder. (If you’re a big fan of iDVD or burning your own audio CDs, this is a no-brainer. . . Time to invest in an external USB optical drive.)
To enable sharing, open System Preferences on the Macintosh with the optical drive, click the Sharing icon and then select the DVD or CD Sharing check box. Note that you can set whether the Mac will request your permission when another computer attempts to share the drive.
On a PC, display Control Panel, click the DVD or CD Sharing icon and then select the Enable DVD or CD Sharing check box. Again, you can specify that permission is required, in case security is a concern.
After you set up the shared drive, just load the disc and select the Remote Disc item in any Finder Sidebar. (Remote Disc appears under the Devices heading in the Sidebar.) Now you can access the drive as if it were directly connected to your MacBook Air. Ah, technology!