Disc Drive is broken. Is there another way to use disc utility?

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Hi,

My CD drive broke on my imac. In the past, in order to repair disc, i have had to put my installation disc in the drive and reboot holding the C key. I cannot do this. At first, it was making this noise and spitting out the CD when I rebooted. Now it won't even accept the CD. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to get it fixed right now.

When I go to Utilities, the "repair" button is dimmed out. Is there anyway to activate this feature so I can repair w/out the CD?

Thanks a bunch.
 
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late 08 macbook 2.0 4gig 320hdd10.7.3 32 gig iPhone 4s
Do you have access to an external dvd/cd ?
 
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No. I suppose I could get one for cheaper than it would cost to get the internal drive fixed. On external dvd/cd players, do you need to install any sort of software or do you just plug it into the computer and it automatically reads the drive?

Thanks!
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
What kind of Mac do you own? If it's an Intel iMac you can purchase a USB 2.0 external CD\DVD superdrive. However, if your machine is a PPC machine (before Intel) you will need a CD\DVD drive with a firewire connector. PPC machines can not be booted from USB 2.0, they need firewire.

And no, you do not need additional software or drivers to use an external CD\DVD drive.

Regards.
 
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20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Are you trying to run repairs to your HD? If you don't need a CD drive at the moment you can check your HD and files without by running "fsck".
If you need to know how let me know.
 

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