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How to use an external USB Apple SuperDrive on a Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion

I recently removed my superdrive from my Macbook Pro to add a secondary hard drive. In this case a 750 Seagate Momentus XT. I then ordered an external USB Apple SuperDrive; not knowing it didn’t work on my MacBook Pro right out of the box. To make it work I had to do the following:

  • Go to /System/Library/Extensions/, right-click on AppleStorageDrivers.kext and choose ‘Show package contents.’
  • Then go to /Contents/PlugIns/, right-click on AppleUSBODD.kext and choose ‘Show package contents’ on that file.
  • Then edit the file AppleUSBODD with Hex Fiend.
  • By searching the file, you should find two chains of this type: Supported Mac Models MacBookAir Macmini Macmini1 Macmini2.
  • You must replace one of the values by your model identifier. In my case, I simply replaced MacBookAir by MacBookPro to keep a file of the same length. Pay attention to spaces, do not put any between MacBook and Pro. Normally, just use the beginning of the identifier and it should be enough, so : MacBook, MacPro, iMac, etc. Also pay attention to capital letters.
  • Once it is done on the two chains, just save and replace the original file AppleStorageDrivers.kext by the new. If everything is OK, Mac OS X will ask for a password.
  • Then launch Kext Utility to clear caches and repair permissions, and restart the Mac. If everything went well — this was the case on my MacBook Pro — the external drive should work right away.

Some portions borrowed from http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20111107064435227

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