I have an old Apple USB SuperDrive from 2013 that I use to submit Disc IDs and occasionally ISRCs from CDs to MB. Discs now make a screeching noise when removed from it, and I worry this may damage them. Apple stopped making and selling the SuperDrive some years ago, and even it was a pretty basic product (it can’t read Blu-rays and its connector is USB-A; I have to attach an adapter to hook it up to my MacBook Pro). Does anyone know of a good external optical drive I can use as a substitute/successor? A cursory Newegg search shows some promising products, but I know that not all computer parts and accessories are created equal.
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I’m afraid I have no personal experience of these devices, but I’ve found some reviews
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Unless you see actual damage on the CDs I expect it is the internal of the drive just needing a bit of lubrication. I had a Marantz separates CD drive that failed, decided to brave it and just open it up. Repaired it with £20 of parts from EBay. Inside drives you find parts that literally dry out and a bit of simple lubrication\grease may stop the screeching. It is more likely to dry out than change mechanically. A bit of grease on moving parts does wonders and if it is failing you can’t do worse than trying.
On a PC I just randomly picked up an external BluRay drive and started using it for ripping. It works fine. The CD drive manufactures have mostly shut down so most drives are made by the same people. So buy yourself anything and you are likely fine. You are doing a digital transfer so there is less to worry about than analogue
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I’m looking for one that can handle severely damaged or degraded CDs, of which I have quite a few that are irreplaceable.
In particular a CD drive that can skip over large delaminated sections of burned CDs (like moving the needle of a vinyl record halfway through) would be a blessing.
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Hey HibiscusKazeneko, you probably know that Pioneer has had an especially good reputation for optical drives for many years (among rippers). For a long time I’ve assumed that, in general, higher-end models of half-height, 5.25”, tray-loading drives have higher accuracy than slim drives.
So, it was interesting to see that as of 2024, the 10 drives that had the best accuracy ratio among AccurateRip submissions included a mix of half-height and slim drives. The top three includes two half-height drives and one slim drive:
- Hitachi-LG BH14NS48, a half-height BD-RE drive from 2013 (with SATA connector)
- TSST (Toshiba-Samsung) SE-506BB, a slim, external BD / DVD+RW drive from 2012 (with USB-A connector)
- Pioneer BDR-S11JX, a half-height BD-R drive first manufactured in 2017, and as recently as 2022 (with SATA connector)
There are two more Pioneer BD drives in the top 10. Maybe of interest to you is that Matshita has four drives in the top 10, all of which are internal slim drives. At least one of those Matshita drives is marketed as a replacement for the SuperDrive.
The data samples sizes for each drive in the list on dBpoweramp Forum varies. With more samples, the ranking might change. Even so, this list looks like a great resource if you haven’t checked it already.
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I have Verbatim Ultra HD 4K External Slimline Blu-ray Writer. I’m not complaining.
Pioneer BD-RW BDR-UD04 1.14
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Slimline Blu-ray writer with 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback*
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USB 3.2 GEN 1 with USB-CTM connection
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6x maximum write / 4 x maximum read speeds for BD-R/BD-R DL
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Compact and lightweight, ideally suited for use with a notebook or ultrabook
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Power provided by the USB port - no need to carry a bulky power adapter
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Includes award-winning BD/DVD/CD burning software
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Stores up to 100GB on a BDXL Disc / 8.5GB on a Double Layer DVD / 4.7GB on a standard DVD
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Fully compliant with MDISC archiving technology
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Includes a FREE 25GB Verbatim Blu-ray disc
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Product Dimensions: 14.5 x 13.3 x 1.1cm (L x W x H)
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Product Weight: 215 grams
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Data Buffer: 4MB
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Interface: USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C™
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Data Transfer Rate: 1.5Gbits/sec
USB-C to USB-A Cable
USB-A to USB-C Adapter
Nero Burn & Archive Software on CD
Manual on CD
Reliability:
- MTBF: 60,000 POH
- Loading / unloading durability: 20,000 times
- Disc attach / detach: 20,000 times
- Interface connectory attach/detach: 10,000 times
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Can you directly plug a USB-C USB-C cable between this and the computer?
The only output on this drive is USB-C.
I have a USB-C to USB-A cable.
I don’t have a USB-C to USB-C cable, so I can’t test it.
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I have a very similar Verbatim drive (maybe even exactly the same, but I don’t have it on me right now to check), and in my case, yes. 
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That Verbatim-branded Pioneer drive does sound good. And LibreDrive supports it. Thanks for including the MTBF as well.
And HibiscusKazeneko: did you end up getting a new drive?
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Yes, I did. I got the archgon drive mentioned in the first link in @Beckfield’s post upthread. It was a tad pricey, but I’m happy with it thus far.
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