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MacBook Pro *thinks* DVD is blank (but it's not)


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MacBook Pro *thinks* DVD is blank (but it's not)
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tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2008-04-27, 10:50

I've been having the most unusual problem with my MBP's SuperDrive. I have a slew of DVDs with backup data on them, and when I put them in my MBP, I get the prompt from Finder telling me that "I've just inserted a blank DVD, what would you like to do, blah blah blah blah". However, I know the data is on the DVDs--I can read them fine on my girlfriend's iMac. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to fix this problem? I've searched around over at the discussion forums here, on apple.com, and googled the problem--all to no avail. The only workable solution I've found is to insert the DVD in my gf's iMac, then mount her drive (insert that's what she said joke here) from my MBP via the Finder. But what I would really like to do is be able to read the media directly from my laptop.

Here are the specs for my laptop:

laptop: 2.2 GHz MBP running 10.5.2 with HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N optical drive.
media: imation dvd+r 16X

TIA!

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick
  quote
Kickaha
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2008-04-27, 11:04

Do both machines have the same OS version? Any extra software installed on either machine to read or write any extra file formats?

What software was used to burn the DVD?
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dmegatool
Custom User Title
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: At home
 
2008-04-27, 11:06

What about the brand of DVD... Is it just that one that acts like that ?
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tomoe
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Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2008-04-27, 13:58

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
Do both machines have the same OS version?
I'm running 10.5.2, she's running 10.4.11. Also, we have different SuperDrives--mine is (I think) an LG drive, while her drive is a Matshita.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
Any extra software installed on either machine to read or write any extra file formats?
Not that I'm aware of, you're talking about something like Toast right?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
What software was used to burn the DVD?
I used 'burn folders' from within Finder.app to make the DVDs.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dmegatool View Post
What about the brand of DVD... Is it just that one that acts like that ?
I think this might be it...I just tried a few different data DVDs based on brand. The imation and Memorex DVDs won't read on my laptop (either in Mac OSX or in XP via BootCamp), however, the Sony and TDK DVDs read fine. Coincidentally (and I don't really know if this is indeed the root cause), but the Sony and TDK media are DVD-R, while the Memorex and imation are DVD+R. But they all read fine on the iMac. I think I'lll go through the tedium of using her computer to duplicate all of the data DVDs that won't read to the Sony ones I recently purchased.

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick
  quote
Kickaha
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2008-04-27, 14:06

And these were burned on which machine?

This is kinda bizarre, but... http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4396316 see if turning it upside down during mounting works.
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tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2008-04-27, 14:13

Yeah, they were all burned on my old iMac (1st generation Core Duo, same model as the gf's). I read about the "turning it upside down trick"...I haven't tried it yet.

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick
  quote
tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2008-04-27, 21:37

Just tried the "upside down" approach 3 times, and it worked 0 times. Someone in the thread claimed it only worked 50% of the time in their hands; even if I assume this, there's still only something like a 1/8 chance of it not working 3 times in a row. I'm going to give Apple a call tomorrow and see if they have any info on this.

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch
He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick
  quote
babyb
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
 
2008-05-01, 10:18

Are they multi session disks?

Macs suck with multi session disks that haven't been closed. I'm sure people manage with them all the time but i'm always getting users bring me disks their macs can't read, to later find out that they're unclosed multi session disk.

Just a thought
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Kickaha
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2008-05-01, 10:24

Yeah, the kicker is that in Windows, where most of the unclosed (and therefore incorrect) sessions get burned, you know how they fixed the problem?

Did the fix the code that didn't properly close out sessions? Oh hell no. It still does that.

They added code to be able to read non-standard multi-session burns.

Which means that... to anyone who isn't in the know, it looks like Windows is the only platform that works... when really, it's the only one that's broken.
  quote
tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2008-05-01, 17:43

None are multi-sessions discs.
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