On Oct. 9 we reported that Apple has no plans to support DVD-RW capabilities in its SuperDrive. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use DVD-RW media in the SuperDrive.
The SuperDrive, which comes with Apple’s mid-range and high-end G4 desktops, is a combination CD-RW/DVD-R drive that reads and writes both CDs and DVDs. Apple has no plans to support the DVD-RW standard at this time. Since it’s not clear that this standard will become ubiquitous, they’ll continue to evaluate it, but for now, Apple only supports DVD-R.
The SuperDrive is, in fact, a DVD-RW/CD-RW, and is fully supported in Mac OS X. To work with a DVD-RW, you first have to format it with Disk Utility, and then you can use it like a DVD-R until you erase it again.
Apple doesn’t promote the drive as a DVD-RW, and apparently won’t answer to customers later if the DVD-RW format goes nowhere, but it’s worth noting that Mac OS X supports the technology and it’s fully functional, right out of the box, with a stock Mac with SuperDrive.
In fact, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, consumer-technology editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press/Knight Ridder has been able to burn data repeatedly onto DVD-RW platters using Roxio Toast and the SuperDrive.
“The procedure is buggy and awkward, though, so it’s a shame Apple doesn’t allow DVD-RW burning right in the Finder,” he told MacCentral.