Problems With Toast

[JackS33]

As a newcomer to Toast, purchased in a bundle through another forum group, I've found it difficult to work with and cannot figure out how it works because my experience and what I see and happens on-screen bears little resemblance to the tutorials. Please bear with my ignorance but perhaps my brain doesn't work in accordance with the conventions used by Toast's developers. Sorry, but that's what is.

 

First question: How do I ascertain the version of Toast that I have, please? I think I have Toast Titanium 11 and I have updated it but beyond that I have no knowledge. Opening the app and clicking on the Toast Titanium title in the menu bar produces no result as the "About Toast" menu item is greyed out.

 

Second question: How do I get the copy function to work, please? Following the instructions in the Toast Titanium User Guide​ is practically useless to me because when I follow the prescription for a single drive machine nothing happens apart from a few clicks and whirrs. No ejection of disk after copying; no prompt to insert blank disk; nothing. Perhaps I'm impatient but waiting for several minutes after the whirring and clicking have stopped seems like far too long for an i7 CPU machine operating normally otherwise. My experience of similar Window-based products usually keep the user informed if a process takes some time with messages like "Reading Disk" etc. Nothing appears on my screen to tell me what's happening. Also, the link to the copying dvd tutorial given in the support page appears to refer to an earlier version of Toast; it bears no relationship to the version that opens on my screen.

 

I'm (not) using Toast Titanium on a 15" mid-2012 MacBook Pro with OSX 10.8.5. All suggestions gratefully received, because Toast is not, so far, living up to its reputation.

[tsantee]

Sorry it isn't working as easily as it should. The best way to check the version is to select the Toast application in the Applications folder in the Finder and choose Get Info from the Finder's File menu. The version appears in the Get Info window. You probably couldn't access the About Toast Titanium because the "Assistant" window was open. It is supposed to make things easier but I don't use it. I uncheck the box to show the assistant and close it.

 

The Copy process should have worked as you expected it to. The destination drive is shown at the bottom. When you insert your source disc it's name should appear in the Copy window when the default Disc Copy is selected. Click the Copy button. Toast writes a disc image to a temporary location. When finished it ejects the disc and asks you to insert a blank disc.

 

Since that didn't happen I think Toast came to a spot on the disc where it couldn't read the content; either because of a scratch, dirt or corrupt file. Rather than tell you what happened Toast just sits and the drive eventually stops spinning. Your version of Toast may have an option on the right-hand side of the Copy window called "Use Disc Recovery." Give that a try. It is very slow reading the disc but it may get all the way through. Or it might not.

 

You can also try copying the disc by dragging it into the Data window. If this is a video DVD choose DVD-Rom (UDF) as the format. If it is computer files choose Mac only or Mac & PC. Then choose Save as Disc Image from the Toast File menu. When that is finished you can choose the Image File setting in the Toast Copy window to burn the resulting .toast file to a DVD disc.

[JackS33]

Thanks, tsantee,

 

Your comprehensive and clear instructions and tips are most helpful and now toast is working as I believe it should. :) :)