If you have a Mac that doesn't have an optical drive, or your optical drive has failed, or for whatever reason your OSX machine doesn't have an optical drive, you can access a CD / DVD read-only on another OSX or windoze windows machine.
First setup the share.
On a Mac go to System Preferences > Sharing and select "DVD or CD Sharing".
If your OSX machine is not a MacBook air, to access Remote Disc you need to run two commands in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser EnableODiskBrowsing -bool true
defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser ODSSupported -bool true
Then, restart.
select it in the Finder.
If, on the machine sharing out the Disc, you have selected the "ask" you'll need to click "Ask to use...". While this is kind of good for security, though no username / password is required, its tedious because every time you click on the Remote Disc you have to ask, and the request has to be accepted
after you click on "Ask to use.." it goes off and asks for permission
6 comments:
This is incredibly useful - my CD/DVD drive broke and I so rarely need to use it that it wasn't worth replacing out of warranty. Thank you!
I am somewhat technologically illiterate. Your instructions were clear and concise. You saved the day! Many, many thanks!
Ditto what Trevor said for me - this is a huge help. Thanks!
Just tried this on Lion 10.7 and it works there too.
I've created an Automator App that configures it for you, without a restart.
You can find it here. http://hurttech.com/2011/07/29/howto-share-optical-drives-cddvd-between-two-macbooks/
Great stuff - thanks!
Could you please tell me how to undo these commands in terminal? I used them on both machines, but ironically could only get the remote disc working on the iMac with the working CD/DVD. The old intel machine with the useless DVD reader remains impassive and unable to "see" the working drive. Ouch.
Thanks
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