Chosen Solution
I have a MacBook Pro mid 2010 with a black hard drive on which I have to install OS X but my optical drive won’t work so I’m trying to use a sub SuperDrive which isn’t being recognized
Go under Finder, to the left of the Apple in the upper left hand corner to Preferences. Click on general > CDs DVDs, and iPods. See if the icons shows up on the desktop. Here’s what Apple says: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201788 It also states this: The Apple USB SuperDrive and MacBook Air SuperDrive are compatible with any Mac manufactured after 2008 that doesn’t have a built-in optical drive. I’m looking for a work around for this so you use it on a machine with a drive. Damned poor thinking on Apples part forcing you to buy or repair your internal drive. I don’t know if it will work if you disconnect the internal but this possibly blocks using the optical drive bay for a hard drive adapter. See if the second answer on this question will work for you using terminal commands: usb disc drive problems? Here’s a video on how to get your MacBook Pro with an optical drive to recognize the external drive. You can skip the wordy first three minutes, expand the video to full screen size so you can see what’s being entered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDgxq827…
