CD-RW troubles

[guavaman]

For reasons I can't comprehend, both recorded and blank CD-RW discs seem to be invisible to my IMac G5. I pop in a blank or recorded disc, and it doesn't show up in Finder or Disk Utility. Toast may see it, but probably thinks it's blank, even if it isn't. I'll say, OK, it's blank, and try to burn a playlist to the disc with Toast. But wait, Toast now says the disc does not have enough room to burn the playlist! It's a 50-50 chance as to whether I will successfully erase the disc and be able to burn to it.

I tried using an external burner, assuming a problem with the Mac's DVD burner, and this seemed to work for a while. But after time, I had the same problem using the external burner.

Any thoughts?

Guava George

 

[Walrus666]

Which Mac and operating system do you have?

 

[guavaman]

iMac G5
PowerMac8.2

OSX Version 10.4.11

Burner is MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845

 

[Walrus666]

I take it that both of your drives support CD-RW and that you set your CD preferences in System Preferences accordingly.
Are you having trouble with any other discs?
If not, I'm wondering if perhaps you got your hands on a bad batch of CD-RW's.

 

[guavaman]

The only thing in System Preferences I can find is the CD's and DVD's section, where I have it set up to open Finder when a blank CD is inserted. And a music CD should show up in Finder, even if I told the system to ignore the disc. Even if this were set up wrong, however, I don't think it would affect whether or not Disc Utility saw the disc. As far as a bad set of discs, some are old and have been written to by this very machine. Some are brand new and have also been written to. My real question, though, is why Finder and Disc Utility show no disc when Toaster sees it, and why Toaster will say the disc is blank, but then will not burn to it because it is not blank? Sometimes using Toaster to erase the disc will work at that point, sometimes not.

Here's another question. is there a brand of CD-RW that works particularly will with Macs? I currently have both Staples discs (the older ones) and SONY.

 

[Walrus666]

Have you tried different types of discs. For instance, cd-r or dvd-r, etc?
Have you tried repairing permissions and,or zapping the PRAM?
Have you tried cleaning your discs?
In Finder's preferences is the CD's, DVD's and iPods box checked?

 

[guavaman]

Sorry so long to reply. Life got in the way.

I tried a CD-R the other day, and got a strange error. "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media." I then put the same disc in an external burner, connected to a PC, and the disc burned just fine.

I did recently succeed in burning data to DVD-R discs.

But what I really want to know - besides why I am having so much trouble with discs - is why Toast will see a disc that Finder and Disc Utility cannot, and why Toast sometimes says a disc is blank when it is not?

Finally, please let me know if one or other brand of blanks are recommended for Macs.

Oh, and today, I erased a disc with Disk Utility, which saw the "full" disc, but Finder did not see the same disc when it was blank. Toast saw the blank one, but gave me an error (which I forgot to write down) about 4/5 through the burning process. The disc is playable, but the last 20 minutes or so (of 79) are blank.

 

[Walrus666]

I use Taiyo Yudens.

 

[guavaman]

I checked out the web site above and the company's site, and they do not seem to make CD-RW's, which are essential to me.

Do you like these because they are exceptional discs or because they work particularly well with MACS?

 

[Walrus666]

They are exceptional and they work well with Macs. I use them to back up my movies. By the way, did you try zapping the PRAM or repairing permissions?

 

[guavaman]

Permissions are repaired somewhat regularly, and were definitely done recently. I have only reset PRAM once or twice, both times when my previous two internal hard drives failed. (Haven't had much luck with this machine) So I recent the PRAM and it didn't make a difference.

At first, I thought some progress had been made. I put in what I thought was a blank CD-RW, and it was recognized as such by Finder. I decided to try to burn to it with Itunes. Right after the process began, I got the following error message:

The attempt to burn a disc failed. An internal error occurred.

I then tried the same disc with Toast. Toast called it blank, but then said there was not enough space (meaning it is not blank.)

I decided to see what a new program I downloaded called MegaBlaker said about the disc. MegaBlanker program says it is blank!

I tried another disc, which Finder saw and showed was not blank. I used Disc Utility to erase it. I don't think it showed up as a blank disc in Finder, but I forgot to check. I then went back to Itunes and clicked on Burn. First, it ejected the disc. I put it back in, and Itunes has been flashing "Checking media..." for about five minutes now.

Any other thoughts?

George

 

[Walrus666]

What size was the file that you tried to burn with Toast?

 

[guavaman]

Not sure of the size, but it was a 45 minute music disc from a bunch of mp3 files. The blank disc was either 650MB (74 minutes) or 800MB (80 minutes). The mp3 files totaled 62.7MB, but the files written to disc are larger, right?

 

[Daydreamer]

When writing an audio disc (that can be played in any CD-audio player, not a data disc with mp3 or wav files) file size does not matter, only track length does, and 45 minutes total fits on any normal-sized CD.

When writing data, on the other hand (mp3 files are still mp3 files, probably in a single data track, and unplayable on many audio-cd players), file size matters, but no, the files won't magically "grow".

 

[guavaman]

Well, it WAS an audio disc, about 45 minutes worth, not a data disc. Exactly what does the file size have to do with anything, by the way? This would not explain why Finder cannot see blank discs.

Can you recommend a brand of CD-RW's?

 

[Walrus666]

Well, it WAS an audio disc, about 45 minutes worth, not a data disc. Exactly what does the file size have to do with anything, by the way? This would not explain why Finder cannot see blank discs.

Can you recommend a brand of CD-RW's?

Correct, this wouldn't explain why the Finder doesn't see your blank discs but I was a bit curious about what you were trying to burn and the error message that you received from Toast saying that there was not enough space. From my experience, when I received error messages like the one's that you received I have found that it was due to either a faulty drive or bad media. Unfortunately, I can't recommend a RW disc because I never use them. As far as Finder and Disk Utility sometimes being able to recognize discs and other times not, I would have to think that it's either the media or the drive causing the problem or perhaps some hardware related issue. I would try a different brand of CD-RW's and if that doesn't work I'd hook up an external drive that you know works and try that along with the old and new media.
Here's a link to some CD-RW's.
http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=R&Category_Code=CM1

 

[guavaman]

Ah, I forgot about that Toast error message. That actually happens quite often. Toast first says the disc is blank, and then says there is no room on the disc when I try to burn it. Usually, but not always, I can erase the disc with Toast at that point and then burn the disc. Not this time.

The reason I keep thinking it is a software issue is twofold. First, I still don't understand why Toast would see a disc that Finder and Disc Utility do not. Second, I have, in fact, connected an external drive and had the same problems. I seem to recall, though, that the external drive worked fine at first, but eventually I had the same problems with the external as with the internal.

I'll pick up some new CD-RW's (I currently have two different brands, some older and some newer, and same results for both.) I don't have high hopes, though.

 

[Walrus666]

If you have Toast set up to launch either in your System Preferences or Toast's Preferences, when a DVD or CD is inserted into your drive(s), this could possibly (Don't quote me) be the reason that Toast recognizes the discs but the Finder and Disc Utility do not. Bear in mind that Toast also requires fifteen gigs of free hard drive space (I would imagine that this figure varies depending on what is being copied and compressed.) for compressing and copying the data and if you don't have the additional hard drive space, you'll get warning messages.
How long did the external drive work? These drives certainly don't last forever. I pretty much buy a new external drive every year or so.
I had a problem recently with my CD's and DVD's appearing on my desktop as volumes! It turned out to be a feature on InternetCleanup called Device Sentry that was the culprit. So, disagreeable software can cause disc mounting problems as well.

 

[Walrus666]

I forgot to mention that certain drives receive more error messages (From my experience) than other drives. For me, Matshita was one of those problematic drives. In addition, I've noticed that when I would plug a drive into the USB port, I would get a lot of error messages. However, when I would connect the same drive into the firewire port I wouldn't get any error messages.

 

[guavaman]

OK, Toast is not set up to launch when I insert a disc. I think this was once the case, but no longer. I have it set to launch Finder when a blank CD or DVD disc goes in.

I'm guessing the amount of space Toast needs refers to the "Roxio Converted Items" folder. All I can say is, Toast never said there was not enough space on the hard drive to burn a disc. I think only Itunes has quit in the middle of burning a disc, not Toast.

About the external drive. It still works. The only problem is that the same issues that have occurred with the internal drive eventually cropped up on the external. I have used the external with both the Mac and my PC notebook. Recently, I stopped using it with the Mac because it wasn't working any better than the internal. It is (mostly) fine with the PC Notebook.

CD-RW's are essential to me. I use them to burn a radio show every week so I can listen to it at home and in the car. I also sometimes burn albums to RW's if I am not sure I'll want to keep them. I used to burn data regularly for work purposes, but not so much anymore.

When I get a chance, I'm going to buy some new CD-RW's. I'll go with an entirely new brand, and just use them with the Mac. I"ll let you know how it works out.