If you ever wanted to share or use CD or DVD drive that is connected to another computer on your mac, this article will show you how. This could be useful if you want to play audio cd’s in itunes but your mac doesn’t have a built-in CD player (even though iMac does), make backup of data from CD or DVD disc to your mac hard drive, fast ripping audio cd’s on another computer with EAC software, playing DVD movies without the need of buying a built-in dvd player.
Let’s start! How this works? You are using 2 computers connected together by ethernet cable(s), creating virtual network over the cables. I tested this method with 2 PowerPC macs (iMac G3 and PowerBook G4), but should work fine on Intel-based macs too.
What is remote disc on mac
Any mac running 10.5 (Leopard) or newer can be turned into a “Remote Disc” host that other Macs can connect to in order to use its optical drive [source]. If your using another computer on the same network, you will create a virtual CD / DVD drive and you’ll be able to use it in no time.
Turn on Remote Disc feature
To make CD or DVD drive available for other computers, you need to turn on the remote disc feature. It’s easy and fast. Here is how: Go to “System Preferences” then click on “Sharing”. Select (click) Remote Disc then press lock icon in order to enable this feature.
Turn on Apple Remote Desktop under System Preferences > Sharing. If you don’t have it installed, go to www.apple.com/remotedesktop, download and install it first before proceeding with this article.
What you’ll need
- 2 mac computers connected on same network, wireless or wired. I’m not sure if you can use CD or DVD drive across internet with this method but probably you can try it yourself if there is no firewall blocking the connection.
- ethernet cable(s) to connect both of your mac computers together.
- power cord for each computer.
- blank CD or DVD disc. iphonesia
How to connect the drives
On your Mac that has the drive you are trying to use, go System Preferences > Sharing. If there is no “Remote Disc” option under “Sharing” window, return back to this step and make sure you turned on Remote Disc sharing feature (see first part of this article). Once you have enabled Remote Disc service, look for the drive name of the computer that has CD or DVD drive attached to it. Click on the small drop down box below “CD or DVD Sharing” and select the appropriate hostname/IP address of the computer you are trying to connect your Mac’s CD /DVD-RW with.
How to format the drive to FAT32
Before you insert a blank CD or DVD disc into your Mac, it’s best to format it as “MS-DOS (FAT)” first. If you don’t do this, there is a big chance that you’ll get error messages saying “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer”. To format the drive as FAT32, go to Utilities folder and look for Disk Utility. Select the drive name from left hand side panel and click on “Erase” tab. Format as MS-DOS (FAT) then press “Erase”. When finished, close the window.
How to use the drive
Now you should see your drive under “Remote Disc” option. Double click on it and there you go, enjoy watching movies or copying files from the CD / DVD disc. When finished, eject the CD / DVD by pressing eject button on the top right corner of your mac’s keyboard.
Conclusion
That’s it. It’s really easy to use CD or DVD drive attached to another computer on your Mac, isn’t it? If you still have any question about this article, please leave a comment. And stay tune for more articles! 🙂
