Finder keeps "losing" my CD

Question

I've been importing some CDs I own into iTunes. I had a situation yesterday where the CD disappeared from the Devices section. I think it was ripping the tunes at the time and then it was gone. I couldn't see it in Finder, either. I had to reboot and then it recognized it again. Today I had the same issue. I put in a CD, it asked if I wanted to import it, I clicked yes and it seemed to start about its merry way, then I clicked on the Music menu and was trying to locate something to see if it was already ripped. That's when I noticed that the CD was once again missing in action. And, as happened yesterday, I don't see the disk in Finder, either. It's very odd. I was able to use the Eject button and eject it, reinsert it, and start the process over and now it's importing the CD, but I'm not sure why this is happening. Any help on why this is happening would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You should definitely have the file 'com.apple.finder.plist' -- (if it's missing the system will just create a new one.) You may not be searching in the correct location.
"~" is a short-cut meaning "your home folder". E.g. "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist" means:
Open Finder
Navigate to your "Home" folder (from the Finder menubar you can click "Go" -> "Home" to navigate to it instantly)
In your home folder, open the "Library" folder
In the "Library" folder, open the "Preferences" folder
In the "Preferences" folder, search for a file named "com.apple.finder.plist"
(Hint: It may be easier to find it if you use the Finder menu and select "View" -> "as List" (when you're finished you can return to the default style which is "View" -> "as Icons")).
Drag that file to trash (or to your desktop or anywhere you'd like just so it's moved out of the "Preferences" folder)
Restart Finder by holding down the "Option" key, put the mouse over the Finder icon in the dock (usually it's the left-most icon) then press-and-hold the left mouse button (while still holding option). You should get a menu with a choice to "Relaunch" -- select that to restart Finder (note that this will cause the "com.apple.finder.plist" file to get re-created in your "Preferences" folder -- except it will reset to all default values.