OS X only sometimes recognises my external burner.

Support for third party burners being what it isn't in OS X, I keep coming across this little problem:
I have a LaCie external burner that works a treat when OS X can see it but sometimes it's just not there.
I mean, the system profiler can see it on the firewire chain, it just doesn't see it in Toast.
Obviously iTunes doesn't see it. But it never does, support for third party burners being what it isn't in OS X.
Any idea why this might be?

Ah, well that's a relevant bit of info you left out.
Apple recommends connecting the iPod directly to a FireWire port on the computer, not as part of a FireWire chain or via hub. This is probably due to how much FireWire bandwidth or power (for charging) it consumes. If your optical drive also draws power from the FireWire port (instead of a separate power supply) that could also help explain this. I'd only recommend daisy-chaining FireWire devices that all draw mains power via their own power supplies. Bus-powered devices should probably not be chained, but rather used on dedicated ports.
A potentially related problem has been noted using an iSight and FireWire drives simultaneously, again due to the bandwidth demands the iSight places on the FireWIre bus.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Similar Messages

HT201250 My time machine only sometimes recognises my external hard drive, and when it does, it freezes and does not transfer any data. What is going on?

I changed hard-drive. Time machine started hopefully and mid-way through the whole thing froze. Since then, back to the same problem

I bought a new one yesterday to check - it went to 15GB, then suddenly all collapsed again. Would that be sheer coincidence that two hard-drives blow up when trying to use time machine?

Mac won't recognise external burner

my mac has been working with my external apple burner, however, it now won't recognise it even though i have a blank cd inserted and i'm unable to eject it

Turn off everything and disconnect the external burner, then do an NVRAM reset.
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R.
Turn on your Mac.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
Release the keys.
Reconnect the burner and try using it.
(Excerpt from How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support)

Burn from Imac direct to external burner

How can I burn directly from my Imac CD player disc insert to my external CD burner? I can do it on my PC with no problem using Record Now program. Is there a program I can use to accomplish this? Or am I only limited to creating an image in the Imac, then burning to an extenal burner? It takes too long. On my PC I can insert a recorded disc in one slot.....put in a blank CD into the other slot........and burn disc to disc direct. Help!!!

Thanx.........I downloaded Burn, but couldn't figure out how to use it in the burner to external burner application. Plus there was no "help" button or online manual. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can see how to use it AFTER you create an image file. I don't want to have to take all of the time to create a file, then burn from that file. I have a recording studio and sometimes I need to make a quick copy from a disc. On PC you just put in one disc....then one into the burner and the copy disc to disc. I am new to Mac and find it far superior to my PC. I record through Logic Pro 9, Reason and Ableton so I am not a newby. I have a stand alone external burner USB'd to my new 27" quad core Imac. Are there any free programs I can download or is there a setting internally to OS X 10.6.2 that I need to change to get this simple job done?

In Search of a Quiet External Burner

Now that my internal super drive is failing, I'm considering a more robust external burner as a back-up to my internal burner (which is still under waranty and will be replaced). In the past, the external burners I've had were quite loud. The LaCie I had was the worst. Sounded like a jet taking off when it started up. Can anyone offer suggestions? Thanks.

Here is some info from a DVD ripping/burning site that may prove helpful: I'm using a Pioneer 106D (flashed to get full speed burning) in a LaCie box, which is fairly quiet. the info below is for a Pioneer 111, which cannot currently be flashed by a Mac, but which seems to be a good burner. Hope this helps. (Lot cheaper than others.)
With Macs, we like to stick with FireWire optical drive input when going external. And for the record, my favorite external case is FireWire/USB 2.0...it has both abilities. I was searching all over the 'Net a couple of days ago, looking for the best price on the case I prefer, and I found it for $31.15 plus shipping here:
http://www.pcsforeveryone.com/productinfo.php?cPath=1843&productsid=50720
That's for the generic version of the case, but it's identical to my Bytecc case that's sitting here on top of my G5 tower. As long as it has a product ID number of ME-340U2F, it's made identical to the Bytecc case, I found out, so that saves everybody about $7.
The Pioneer DVR-110D is actually preferred over the DVR-111D for RIPping because there's firmware available for it on the Mac side, where the 111D has to be flashed on a PC at this time. Trouble is finding one! So unless a miracle occurs we're stuck with recommending the DVR-111D. The 2nd cheapest price I could find, $31.99, is for the DVR-111D with a beige bezel (opposed to black):
http://supermediastore.com/pioneer-dvr-111d-16x-dvd-burner-bulk-beige.html
The black bezel DVR-111D-BK is $38.69 with free UPS Ground shipping:
http://supermediastore.com/pioneer-dvr-111d-16x-dvd-burner-bulk-black.html
Those two prices are excellent, but if you want to score the case and the drive at one place, for convenience, newegg.com has the Bytecc case (in black only) for $40, and the drive for $31.82 plus shipping/tax. Your choice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145360
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=dvr-111d& Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all&Go.x=0&Go.y=0
Both Pioneer drives are identical mechanically, it's just the case bezel color that differs. The ME-340U2F case is all aluminum with a built-in double ball bearing 40mm cooling fan, an internal power supply (no power brick), and it comes with both USB and FireWire cables with all the screws necessary to mount an optical drive and secure the case. We like to use FireWire with Macs because the throughput is superior to USB 2.0 on a practical level, not theoretical. Supposedly, USB 2.0 yields up to 480Mb/second and FireWire is 400MB/second, but actual measurement gives the edge to FireWire.

Using and external burner

Hello,
I need to burn many copies of a DVD and wonder what external burner would work with iDVD and my MBPro so that I can save my MBP drive from wear and tear.
If that is even possible?
Thanks,
Al

I don't know for sure, but I would think that you could use non-Lightscribe disks. To my knowledge, the only difference between regular DVDs and those that are printable (like Lightscribe) is the side that comes with text on it-brand name, etc. With regular DVD's you obviously can't take advantage of the burner's ability to print directly on the disk. However, everything else should work the same.
To be sure, I suggest that you go directly to LaCie's website to check out the product specs for more information. You can also look into other brands of burners by going to a site such as Amazon to find the product that best suits your needs.
I would like to add that the ability to print on the disk is a nice option to have. The veteran users on these forums strongly advise against the use of paper labels on disks. Writing on a disk with a marker might be fine for the majority of projects, but printing on a disk can give a nice finishing touch to that special project.
I hope this helps.

My IMAC recognises an external drive but won't let me save to it. Message is the there is no space available but there is 500G left.

My IMAC recognise an external drive but won't let me save video or files to it. Error message is that there is not enough space but the drive is 500G.
Only just started happening a week ago. Same with USB drives.
Regards,
Robert

How much is "plenty of storage"? Go to Settings>General>About>Available
The GB size of the download file is the compressed size (like .zip or .dmg). When the file is installed/uncompressed it can be 2-3 times larger.
 Cheers, Tom

Please recommend best DVD burning program and external burner

My FCPX "Share" will no longer burn a DVD on my MacPro 1,1 via the "DVD" destination. However I can send it to "Master File" and it will make a high quality .mov file. I've then tested using Roxio Toast on a 2 minute .mov clip and it did burn a DVD, but the quality was very, very poor. (Much worse than the DVD that I used to be able to get via FCPX Share).
Your thoughts on: 1) Why does FCPX --> Share --> DVD no longer work/ how to fix it? and 2) Can you recommend the best DVD burning program and external burner? With thanks! Duncan

Toast should give you the highest possible quality so you are obviously doing something wrong.
The only thing I don't like about Toast are the menus . . . which are total rubbish compared with iDVD.
You should also be able to burn DVDs from FCP X so once again you are either doing something wrong or there is a problem with your FCP X setup or computer.
Try trashing the preferences using this free app.
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/
Shut down FCP X, open PreferenceManager and in the window that appears:-
1. Ensure that FCP X is selected.
2. Click Trash
The job is done instantly and you can re-open FCP X.
There is absolutely no danger in trashing preferences and you can do it as often as you like.
The preferences are kept separately from FCP X and if there aren't any when FCP X opens it automatically creates new ones . . . instantly.
Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

Maverick and my external burner

Since I got Maverick my Mercury external burner will not burn with Toast Titanium. It will read data from the drive and play DVDs in the drive, but I have to use the slow internal superdrive to burn from Toast.

The only way to revert back to Snow Leopard is with a Snow Leopard install disk, you cannot download the material, or by using a TimeMachine backup or other backup on an external disk. To revert you have to boot from the install disk, erase the hard drive, and install clean. You will loose all content when you do that unless you have a backup.
Although Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks specs say you need 2 GB ram, you actually need 4 GB or more. The Mac OS X now take about 1.5 GB just for itself. Leaving very little room for anything else to run.
Unless you can obtain and install more memory, the best thing at this time would be to make sure all processes (applications) you do not need are shutdown and not running in the background. Conserve the available memory as best you can.
If you are going to be overseas for an extended period, you might want to see if it is possible to buy some additional ram to install so the MacBook runs better.

How do I get iDVD5 to recognise my external DVD Drive ?

I have just bought a LaCie Double Layer bus-powered Firewire DVD. It is an NEC DVD+-RW ND-6550A device. The drive came with Toast 6 Titanium, which is now installed.
I also have an internal Matshita DVD reader/ CD writer as part of the original G4 setup.
When I attempt to burn a project in iDVD5.0.1, the internal drive opens up and I get a message telling me to insert a DVD, even though this is not a DVD writer. I've tried Control-clicking the Burn icon, but nothing different happens. There is no option for drive selection in the iDVD menu structure either.
I don't really want to spend ages writing Disk Images, then writing to the LaCie, and I've searched this forum for a similar issue - but 'fraid I can't find anything similar. Does anyone have any suggestions that will enable iDVD to recognise the external LaCie ?
Appreciate any advice
Paul

I don't really want to spend ages writing Disk Images, then writing to the LaCie
Don't skip this route - the amount of "extra" time is almost zero - in effect iDVD is doing this anyway behind the scenes to some degree. And separating encoding from burning makes a lot of sense. I always "Save as Disk Image" and burn separately.
And there is a guy that works for LaCie that frequent this forum:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?224@@[email protected]/7
I think you just need the proper disk burning profile from LaCie. You could probably e-mail Mike at the address on his profile. Or post a new thread titled "Question for Mike - LaCie Firewire and iDVD5"
John B.

External Burner is not burning

My iMac Superdrive died about a year ago and I bought an external cd burner. Until last week the external worked fine, then I began to get a Media Burn Error, and now when I put a blank CD in it asks me to define it (Open Finder, iTunes, or Disk Utility). When I then tell iTunes to burn it opens the Superdrive and resquests a blank cd. How can I either 1. Disable the Superdrive completely, or 2. Only enable the external burner.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ted

You may have a dirty lens in the Optical Drive. Use a lens cleaning DVD, a few shots of compressed air or a fine micro cloth wrapped around a business card.
Ciao.

Old CD Burner Broke but iTunes won't recognize new external Burner

HELP!
My internal CD Burner (E-drive) broke and I installed a new external burner (F-drive). However, when I go to burn a CD, iTunes wants to burn to the old, broken internal drive.
I checked Preferences, Burning but the ONLY drive listed is the old broken "E" drive - there is no list of drives to choose from (it is greyed out and I can't choose or point to the new "F" drive).
Any thoughts?
Thanks
Diane

hmmmm. okay, let's try something relatively simple first ... a "reboot and repair".
reboot the PC. (very important.) now do a repair install of iTunes. in Add/Remove programs, select iTunes, click "Change" and then click "Repair".
if the repair install goes through okay, does the F show up in your Burning preferences?

My computer doesn't recognise my external hard drive

My macbook doesn't seem to recognise my external hard drive (OS 10.8.3).
The hard drive connects to laptop via USB, but gets power from another plug in the wall. When I plug it in, its icon does not appear on desktop, or in Finder menu.
The hard drive works fine on my sisters laptop (Macbook, about 5 years old). Other storage devices work fine in my macbook, and appear rapidly on both desktop and finder menu when I insert them.
Have any of you encountered this before? Can you tell me how can I fix it???

Check out KB Article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10866 OS X Mountain Lion: If a CD or DVD doesn’t appear on the desktop

I downloaded several cds to my external hard drive in .mp3 format. Later, I copied them to iTunes. The songs only play when the external hard drive is plugged in. I tried to load the songs from iTunes to my iPhone and the songs don't play.

I downloaded several cds to my external hard drive in .mp3 format. Later, I copied them to iTunes. The songs only play when the external hard drive is plugged in. I tried to load the songs from iTunes to my iPhone and the songs don't play. I thought iTunes allowed me to transfer music to my iPhone and play it. What am I doing wrong?

Hi skoorb1,
When adding music to iTunes, you can set it to either make a local copy of the file, or simply point to the original location of the file (for example, on an external hard drive). If it is set to do the latter, it will not be able to play or transfer those files when the external hard drive is not plugged in. You may find the following article helpful:
iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1347
Regards,
- Brenden

This regards Adobe Reader XI 11.0.07 and Adobe Acrobat Pro XI 11.0.07 running on Win 7. Copying text in a text callout (to paste into a text callout in another pdf document (3 instances of Adobe open) sometimes (only sometimes) causes the program to crash

This regards Adobe Reader XI 11.0.07 and Adobe Acrobat Pro XI 11.0.07 running on Win 7. Copying text in a text callout (to paste into a text callout in another pdf document (3 instances of Adobe open) sometimes (only sometimes) causes the program to crash, losing unsaved work. Windows Task Manager shows only a small percentage of cpu used and plenty of memory available. What is causing this?

scholtzkie wrote:
"Please wait...If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document. You can upgrade ... For more assistance.... Windows is either a registered trademark...."
This usually occurs if you use a browser that uses its own PDF viewer, not the Adobe Reader plugin; see http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/pdf-browser-plugin-configuration.html

OS X only sometimes recognises my external burner.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for