Stuck on Preparing using External DVD Writer

[SDJMcHattie]

Hi,

 

I've got a Belkin external enclosure and inside is an NEC 3520AW 16x DVD writer.

 

When trying to burn anything to this drive, Toast hangs on the preparing message and will not burn the disc. If I turn the drive off, it says there was a connection problem. If I choose abort it simply sits saying abort forever more.

 

The DVD writer works fine with the OS X built in writing stuff and it burns CDs just fine in iTunes. Why does Toast have an issue with it and is there a solution to my problem?

 

Thanks

 

Stuart

[CinciJeff]

I have the same problem, however I think I found the cause. If I try to burn with my external firewire burner using my internal hard drive as the source, I have no problems. If I use an external firewire drive as the source, Toast 8 hangs up after writing the lead-in (ie, as soon as it tries to move data over the firewire bus).

 

For me then, the trick is to use a source NOT on the same firewire bus.

 

Hope this helps!

[SDJMcHattie]

Thanks CinciJeff,

 

I am still having the troubles occasionally, but it seems very random. Usually the drive will not burn or even read unless it is closed with no disc in between when discs are in if that makes sense. Also, if toast takes a long time preparing material before it writes (like compressing a DVD) it also fails to start writing. I can see the sense in your solution when using Firewire. However I am trying to burn from the HDD. I think Toast has quite a few hidden bugs that only come up very rarely.

 

Cheers

 

Stuart

[tsantee]

Hard to say what the problem may be. I'm presuming this is a USB 2 enclosure. I suggest downloading and applying the appropriate OS 10.4.10 combined system update for your Mac. Incremental updates are known to cause odd problems with USB and Firewire which are fixed by applying the combined system update. It does no harm to try it.

 

If Toast if having to do some prolonged process such as video encoding before starting the burn I suggest choosing Save as Disc Image instead of clicking the burn button. When it is finished try burning the disc image using the Image File setting in the Copy window.

 

You also might try trashing the Toast plist and prefs files in you User>Library>Preferences folder.

[SDJMcHattie]

Hi tsantee,

 

Thanks for the information. I tried all three at once and I seem to have gotten it burning from toast. Interestingly though it only worked once and then failed again. I tried a few more things and I found out the root of the problem. It only burns to the disc if I have the blank disc in before I press burn. If I press burn and it has to ask me for a blank disc, it fails every time. A strange one, but at least I can now make it work. Thanks for your help though, I think it probably made a difference as well!!

 

Stuart

[lakewoodlawnman]

I tried a few more things and I found out the root of the problem. It only burns to the disc if I have the blank disc in before I press burn. If I press burn and it has to ask me for a blank disc, it fails every time. A strange one, but at least I can now make it work. Thanks for your help though, I think it probably made a difference as well!!

 

Stuart

 

I can load a disc before and after I click burn so I am not sure what the problem is but there is a problem.