Dvd-rw, Cd-rw Won't Mount

[00Laura00]

Just installed toast thinking I could use it for back-ups to cd-rw's OR dvd-rw's and when I put either in my drive it just spits them out. My drive is supposed to be able to write to the rw's. Why won't they mount? I tried two different brands.

I'm on a G5, system 10.4.11

[tsantee]

Are you wanting to write to these the way PCs can in which the disc is like a small hard drive? If so, the Mac OS doesn't not support that. Get a USB flash drive instead if that's what you want to do. When the flash drive gets full you can copy its contents to CD or DVD using the Data window.

 

Toast can write to CD-RW as multiple sessions and to DVD-RW/+RW as single sessions. After writing to a RW DVD it must be erased before it can be written to again. That's a Mac OS limitation.

 

When you insert a blank CD-RW or DVD-RW it should be no different that when you insert a blank CD or DVD. The bland disc does not appear in the Finder (unless you want to use the Finder burning feature in Mac's OS in which case you have Open Fiinder selected in the CDs and DVDs panel of System Preferences).

[00Laura00]

While the drive says it accepts this media it is rejecting it because either the drive is failing to read the format of the disc or the OS is failing to recognize what the drive is reporting. You have either an OS or drive problem. One thing to try is to create a new user account and see if the problem continues with the new user (it probably will be the same). Another thing to try is to download and apply Apple's 10.4.11 Combined System Update if you had updated to 10.4.11 using the incremental software update. That sometimes fixes odd little problems.

 

I normally suggest trying a different brand of media but it is strange that you're having the same problem with rewritable DVDs and CDs. Older Macs always rejected DVD+R or DVD+RW media but that doesn't appear to apply to your situation. If you aren't using a quality name brand of media then do give a good brand a try.

 

A different laser is used for DVD media than with CD media so it seems unlikely that the drive is defective.

 

When I bought a new G4 iBook a few years ago it rejected all blank discs until I reinstalled the OS. Hopefully that isn't needed in your case.

 

The automatic rejection of the disc is what happens when the media is not seen as compatible with the drive or OS. That's all I know.

 

Thanks for your help "DG". I installed the OSX 4.11 PPC Combo Update... is that what you mean by "Combined Update"? If so, that didn't solve it.

I'm not sure where to go to create a new user account. Could you direct me to that?

I have used two different brands of DVD-RW's

 

[00Laura00]

Well, right now I can't do anything with them because the computer just spits them out right away.

I've used them and Toast at another employer's and it worked just fine so I'm used to the way it works. My computer just doesn't seem to like the RW's for some reason (it is compatible, I checked).

 

 

[tsantee]

Thanks for your help "DG". I installed the OSX 4.11 PPC Combo Update... is that what you mean by "Combined Update"? If so, that didn't solve it.

I'm not sure where to go to create a new user account. Could you direct me to that?

I have used two different brands of DVD-RW's

You create new user accounts in the Accounts panel of System Preferences. Once it is created you can log out of your current account and log into the new one. If it doesn't help the problem then you can go back to your Administrator's account and delete the new user in the same place where it was created.

 

The combo update is the one to which I was referring.

 

I'm sorry I can't think of anything else to make this work. You might post the issue in the CDs and DVDs forum for your model Mac at discussions.apple.com.

[tsantee]

While the drive says it accepts this media it is rejecting it because either the drive is failing to read the format of the disc or the OS is failing to recognize what the drive is reporting. You have either an OS or drive problem. One thing to try is to create a new user account and see if the problem continues with the new user (it probably will be the same). Another thing to try is to download and apply Apple's 10.4.11 Combined System Update if you had updated to 10.4.11 using the incremental software update. That sometimes fixes odd little problems.

 

I normally suggest trying a different brand of media but it is strange that you're having the same problem with rewritable DVDs and CDs. Older Macs always rejected DVD+R or DVD+RW media but that doesn't appear to apply to your situation. If you aren't using a quality name brand of media then do give a good brand a try.

 

A different laser is used for DVD media than with CD media so it seems unlikely that the drive is defective.

 

When I bought a new G4 iBook a few years ago it rejected all blank discs until I reinstalled the OS. Hopefully that isn't needed in your case.

 

The automatic rejection of the disc is what happens when the media is not seen as compatible with the drive or OS. That's all I know.