Use CDs and DVDs on your MacBook Air

MacBook /

The MacBook Air is extremely lightweight partly because it doesn’t have a disc drive, which is great if you’re looking for portability but not so great if you need to use a CD or DVD to watch a movie or install software. A recent MacWorld guide offered a few solutions for users who still want to access discs.

Apple makes it possible to share DVDs and CDs among computers using a feature called Remote Disc, which is listed in Finder under the Devices section. In this window, users can browse the media drives of any Macs connected over a wireless network and use the discs just as if they were on the MacBook Air. MacWorld writer Christopher Breen noted that transfers may be slower than using a disc directly, since the data is being sent over the network.

Another drawback to this approach is that, as Apple notes on its website, the feature does not support DVD movies, audio CDs, install discs for an operating system or protected discs such as games. There are many external USB disc drives on the market, but one other solution Breen suggested is creating a disk image. To do this, go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Image, select the disc and choose DVD/CD Master from the Image Format menu. This image can then be run on a MacBook Air like the original disc.

If you’re having problems with your MacBook Air that go beyond needing a disc drive, you can rely on iResQ’s MacBook repair services.

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