DVD Drive stopped working - best solution...

So the DVD drive in my 2011 Macbook Pro 17" laptop has been acting up for sometime, and has finally stopped working.

I live in a country where there is no Apple shop I can go to for servicing or repair.

So I am looking for the best solution. I have heard that people often removed the DVD drive and put in an extra hard drive; does anyone have any experience of this?

Also what would be the best external DVD drive solution (people still uses DVD here predominantly so I do need to deliver on DVD quite a lot)?

Any good name brand external DVD drive will do well. There's not much difference between them these days. The technology is so old. I'd check out Other World Computing for a solution to replace the internal DVD drive with an SSD drive.

Hi Simon,
It is pretty easy to install a ssd drive into the 17" MBPs. I fixit has step by step instructions, and I think OWC does too.
You could also replace the internal optical drive if you wanted, but make sure the height is correct for your computer.
I think ssd and an external drive is a great way to go, especially if you are still using a hdd as a boot drive. Move the boot to the newly installed ssd and speed will increase.
As to the external, I do not agree all are the same, some really cheap crap out there. I had a real problem with a SONY drive and SONY's tech help sucks.
Have you considered getting a Blu-ray Drive? They still do DVD/CDs and give the option of BDs. I bought an ASUS BD drive that I like so far. It is USB3, but works fine on USB2 as well. In addition, I have a standard portable DVD USB2 drive. It is fine, but write speed is slower than the ASUS. It is good for when I need to take the laptop somewhere and play a DVD. No need for the power chord. Plays off the USB port.
Just had to burn around 60 DL/DVDs and 25 BDs for our last project.

Hope this helps, Greg

Thanks guys, looks like the internal SSD and external DVD drive is the way to go then. I found a SSD caddy that fits the Macbook online so I'll give it a try. Will look into that ASUS Blu Ray too - though I thought the ghost of Steve Jobs still has a hex on blu-ray?

simonpwood wrote: ..... thought the ghost of Steve Jobs still has a hex on blu-ray?

... for the 2-3 DVDs a year, I bought a cheap SAMSUNG drive... <boohooo> :silly:

I replaced the spinning disk in my MBP with a an SSD, moving it then to replace the DVD drive which I put in a £3.00 USB case from Amazon to use when I need it.

A much more convenient arrangement.

Easy to do as well.

Hi Simon
Yep, "BD is a world of hurts"
There is a lot of misconceptions about BD on Macs.
"Macs can not do BD, can't make a BD disk, etc…"
The real issue with BD is the way BD implements it's privacy issues(copy protection). All to no avail I might add.
Apple was part of the Blu-ray standards group, but lost on its position on how to implement BD.
Commercial BDs protections are a World of Hurts as the BD chip on the drives have to able to read restricted areas on the disc, the coding changes time to time, etc…
Your Mac can however, make BD discs, it is even built into FCPX and the "Burn" function can create BD disc from ISOs.
So what is the problem, it is in reading, where all the copy protection is. There is also a fee that gets applied to any manufacture that wants to use BD technology.
You can play BDs by buying a BD R/W drive and using Toast Titanium with the BD plug-in or you can use VLC to view BDs but you need to install the BD libraries. There are links and instructions on the VLC website if you want the free way to do it.
Despite the "Hurts" BD is really nice for it's resolution and capacity. Definitely the way to go if you have Hi-Def TV, or monitor. Guess it is becoming so last year as there is now an Ultra BD standard for 4K.
Good luck with your "mods" on the Mac.

Hope this helps, Greg