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How Do I Find My Mac’s DVD Drive?

I have a Mac book Pro, OS X Lion, purchased in 2012 (my first Mac). It seems I can never locate my Mac’s Dvd drive in ‘finder’, under ‘devices’ or under ‘Places’. It’s also not on my desktop. I’m coming from a heavy windows background, so maybe I’m missing something. Any guidance or suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Thank you
—–
SMackey

Comments: 3 Responses to “How Do I Find My Mac’s DVD Drive?”

    11 years ago

    There are a few ways to make it easier to get to the contents of a disc in the drive.
    The first is to make sure it appears in the Finder sidebar. With a Finder window selected, go to Finder, Preferences. Then click on Sidebar. Put a checkmark next to CDs, DVDs, and iPods under Devices.
    THen, in the same preference window, click on General. At the top you will see a list under "Show these items on the desktop" and you can check "CDs, DVDs, and iPods."
    However, you may only wish to do one of the two -- whichever you prefer.
    Besides that, you should be able to see discs when you use the Finder command Go, Computer. That should show you all of your drives, including any inserted optical disc.

      Smackey
      11 years ago

      Gary, thanks for the quick response and please correct me if I'm wrong but here's another notable difference between Windows and Macs.
      I realized, unlike Windows, the Mac won't waste time displaying its DVD drive when there's no media, because.. what for, there's no reason to! Once I put a music CD in my mac's drive, it showed up in my Finder and on my Desktop!
      Again, thanks for getting back to me!

        11 years ago

        RIght. It displays the disc itself (the volume) not the hardware device. Those that want to, can find the hardware devices listed in the Disk Utility app, even when nothing is inserted.

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