booting system discs on apple usb dvd superdrive

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Kinda new here so hai. :D
my question is are you are able to boot the linux and windows discs on the usb dvd superdrive that apple makes?
I'm used to using the internal dvd drive for booting on other systems (like I said above)
and seeing the new 2013 i-mac has no built-in dvd drive makes me ask.
 

chscag

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First, tell us what you're trying to do? If for example, do you wish to install Windows or Linux on your new iMac that has no built in optical drive? If that's what you want to do, then do not buy the Apple superdrive as it won't work to install Linux or Windows. You can install Windows or Linux by using a USB flash drive instead.

Now, if you want to use the Apple superdrive to watch movies or play music, or even install programs that are on disk, it will work OK.
 
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trying to install linux. I did try booting off a usb key with linux on it, and it did not work. maybe i'm doing something wrong?. rEFIt doesn't work either.
 
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I tried with "unetbootin", the built in usb maker in linux mint (on my pc laptop) and "linux live usb maker".
 

chscag

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First, rEFIt is not going to work to install Linux or anything else. It's a boot menu and manager, not an installer. Once Linux is installed correctly then rEFIt can be used as a boot menu and manager.

After you have correctly built a Linux flash drive, you'll need to use Disk Utility from the recovery partition in order to create a partition for Mint. Boot with the flash drive and make sure you install GRUB on the Linux partition not on your OS X partition. Be real careful.

And make a cloned backup of your hard drive before starting. Use Carbon Copy Cloner as it will also clone the recovery partition.
 
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chscag, the problem is I CAN'T boot from the linux usb drive TO install it :p
 

chscag

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Do you have access to a Windows computer? (I see you have a PC) Try these instructions as they have worked before..... LINK

Let me know.
 
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Chscag, I have tried that with "unetbootin" before and did not work.. even on the unetbootin site it says "Note that resulting USB drives are bootable only on PCs (not on Macs)"
 

chscag

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Here are the instructions for creating a bootable USB flash drive for the Mac - but it's for Ubuntu. I don't see why you couldn't adapt the procedure to work with Mint. Personally, I would use Ubuntu because it's the best supported Linux distro. I also like Mint though.

LINK
 

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