"The disk you inserted is not readable"

I recently ordered some CDs with business information on them and I am having trouble reading the disks.
When I insert either one, I get the message: “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.”
They seem to be ordinary homemade CDs, probably from a PC, but I thought superdrive could read those. I've been able to read other CDs from a PC. I tried basic troubleshooting such as restarting the computer, etc.
Is it possible to burn CDs on a PC in such a way that they are not readable by Macs?
I would guess that the contents of the disks are just PDFs or TIFFs, text files and perhaps an MP3 or two, all files that are cross-platform, so it seems to be an issue with reading the disk itself.

I wouldn't think this applies to OS 10.4, but you can try the OS 10.3 tips given in Work with PC Joliet Level 3 CDs.

Similar Messages

How do I view and open all my files again that are on my external hard drive?? Error message saying 'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' Three options are Initialize, Ignore or Eject.

I have recently purchased Toshiba 1TB hard drive and I set it up and I was able to transfer all my files onto it such as my music, photos, documents. I had correctly ejected and used it again and all these files were safely stored and accessible afterwards. However after I rebooted my computer as it had been going slow and I had too much clogging it up once I reconnected the external hard drive I have error message saying 'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' Three options are Initialize, Ignore or Eject. How do I access all my files? I set it up to work on both mac and windows. I have tried both another mac and windows computer and same issue occurs?? I am worried that all my personal files are gone but am confused as the drive has had absolutely no damage to it as it was in a very short time frame and its never left the same spot. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for your quick response. I had a look at your discussion... I tried it on a Windows machine and I thought that was compatible with ExFAT?
Therefore I need to attempt to use my external hard drive with a machine that boasts OS X 10.6.5 or above and then it should work?
Thanks

Unable to read usb memory stick + "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"

Hi Everyone,
Today I was tryign to use a brand new memory stick 8GB-Samsung PNY on my Mac Book Pro. (Mac OSX 10.7.5)
1. I do not see this drive in the Finder.
   2. Diskutil could detect the drive.
   3. I was trying to put ubuntu image file on the drive from the terminal uitility and I have this error message in a dialog box:
      "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"
4. Clicking on initialize helps me realise that the drive is detected. But I do not have a clue on how to proceed from here. I am new to Mac and its file system formats.
The same issue happened with my 500GB external Western Digital Hard Drive. I was reading on forums that WD got some issues with Apple is trying to resolve. I expected to not have this road-block with another brand but it happened with my memory stick. Now I was forming an impression that something should be done to external storage devices inorder for me to use them Mac OSX.
Kindly enlighten me and help overcome this issue.
Thank You

Thank You OGELTHORPE.
I erased the memory stick and formatted to "Mac OS Extended(Journaled)".
I attempted once again to use the "sudo dd" command from termial trying to copy the Ubuntu image file to the memory stick.
The operation termainates with the same message
      "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"
The termainal message says some bytes got transffered in so many seconds. It looks like this operation is being terminated in the middle.
Have any suggestions and work arounds?

My Sandisk cruzer thumb drive 4.0GB (which is very old, roughly 10 years and I'm not sure about the model) reads "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" when inserted in my Macbook pro 2010. How do I get it to work?

My Macbook Pro 2010 with the latest OS does not open a particular Sandisk Cruzer 4.0GB (which is an old model, about 10 years) thumbdrive with the message "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer". Will I be able to read it on my macbook?

Is it readable in a Windows computer? If not then you can try Disk Utility to repair the drive-- although that may be dangerous too.
I haven't had this problem so I out of safe ideas. There are ustilies out there. I used the seach term "repair flash drive Mac OS X" to locate some of these.
If the data is essential there are pay-for services to recover data looked the price was in the range $50 - $1000
All the best.

HP Laserjet P1102w by USB "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer"

My HP Laserjet P1102w used to work fine with OS X10.10. Then it started saying "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer" whenever I switched it on, but the printer still worked. This morning it didn't. I uninstalled the printer, but can't re-install it - it isn't listed when I click "+". I have tried a different USB cable, and a different USB port - same message. The HP website does not provide a downloadable driver, as far as I can see. What do I do? (The wireless connection to the printer stopped working ages ago. The printer still works with our two PCs via USB.)

Hi Shapley,
Repairing the disk permissions can be done as following:
1. Open the the Applications folder.
2. Go to the Utilities folder.
3. Double-click on Disk Utility.
4. Select the hard drive containing the boot volume.
5. Go to the First Aid tab and select Repair Disk Permissions.
Note: This process may take several minutes depending on the Mac and amount of permissions that need to be repaired. The Progress Log will indicate when the process has been completed.
Next reboot your Mac and try plugging the USB again.
If the same persist, a such may also happen due to a conflict with the HP Smart Install feature which is Windows Based only and being wrongly read by the Mac, in order to resolve a such a Windows based PC will be required. any laptop should meet the purpose, the printer will be installed automatically by connecting the USB.
Next update and install the latest firmware below:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=bi-115794- 2&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=4158&product=4110396&sw_lang=
Next follow the HP Smart Install Control Utility below: Select the Printer and follow the on-screen steps to disable the feature for the printer.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=lj-129224- 1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=4158&product=4110396&sw_lang=
NOw plug the USB back to your Mac and check for any difference
Please let me know of any change,
Shlomi

External Hard Drive - "The disk you inserted was not readable"

Yesterday I bought a Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB external hard drive and I ran disk utility and had it erased and formatted for my iMac. Then I put all my video files and movies on there to free up some space on my main computer hard drive. The FreeAgent external hard drive showed up on my desktop right under the main hard drive and it was working fine.
Today I downloaded and installed Boot Camp and then installed Windows XP Home Edition. After I was done, I went back to OS X and now there's no icon for the FreeAgend external hard drive on my desktop and instead a windows pops up saying "Disk Insertion-- The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" and my only options are "Disk Utility", "Eject", and "Ignore".
So I can't access my external hard drive now but I don't want to do the "erase" option on Disk Utility to reformat it since I have all my video files on there now.
I don't know what to do-- please help!!

Contact Seagate for tech support.

WD external Hard Drive comes up with "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."

So here lies the problem, when connecting my WD external HD to my MBP, I get the message The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. and a further three options of initialize, ignore and eject. I have always hit ignore.
When checking my files, the HD is not available in my finder window.
I've gone into Disk Utilities. It is there to be highlighted. And I go to repair the disk, but each time the Repair button is greyed out.
I've tried to use my data recovery software (rescue pro deluxe) but because the drive isn't showing up in that program, it isn't working.
Are there any other options out there to get the files from that HD (I've just gotten back from 2 months of travel with a bunch of photos on that HD - so would like to get them back). Even if that means putting them onto a spare external HD.

Thanks for your quick response. I had a look at your discussion... I tried it on a Windows machine and I thought that was compatible with ExFAT?
Therefore I need to attempt to use my external hard drive with a machine that boasts OS X 10.6.5 or above and then it should work?
Thanks

I've been getting the error message "The disk you inserted was not readable by the computer". I can't open system preferences, disk utility, or Time Machine. I'm guessing it has something to do with my external hard drive, although it hasn't been touched.

I've been getting the error message "The disk you inserted was not readable by the computer". I can't open system preferences, disk utility, or Time Machine. I'm guessing it has something to do with my external hard drive, although it hasn't been touched lately, but I can't figure out how to solve the problem. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Thanks for your quick response. I had a look at your discussion... I tried it on a Windows machine and I thought that was compatible with ExFAT?
Therefore I need to attempt to use my external hard drive with a machine that boasts OS X 10.6.5 or above and then it should work?
Thanks

I am using a Seagate backup plus portable drive on my iMac 7 with OSX 10.9.2. At startup up I always get a popup window stating "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer. I click ignore and everything seems OK. Is it?

I am using a Seagate backup plus portable drive as my time machine backup on my iMac 7 with OSX 10.9.2 Mavericks. At startup I always get popup window stating "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer..? I click ignore and everything seems to be OK. Time machine seems to be backuping up to the seagate. I can open time machine and see the history of backups. Why does this message come up at startup of computer????

If you installed the Seagate software, remove it according to the manufacturer's instructions.

External HDD: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"

Hi,
I have an external drive with important data on it (there is a backup, but there is also some non-backuped data as well...). I cannot access the external drive because I receive a "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" message connecting it. I was wondering, if you have some advice on how to get my data back?
I have a WD Elements 2 TB (about 2 months old), I am using is with an iMac, latest Snow Leopard. The drive used to work all fine. Now, I receive a "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" every time I connect it. Same thing happens if connected to my MacBook Pro.
What happened?: I was copying files to the external drive. I the middle of it, I received a message complaining I that assumedly ejected the drive by pulling the USB cable out instead of properly ejecting it software-side (I did not do this). The drive symbol was gone. Now, I plug the drive out an reconnected it. The drive symbol showed up again. I continued copying files on the drive, but after some 30 seconds, I received the same error message again. One more time, I disconnected and reconnected the drive - this time to another USB port. The drive showed up, but I was not able to copy files on it (I am using muCommander, it just kept showing 0kb progress). I restarted the Mac. Since then I am getting the "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." The drive symbol does not show up anymore.
I was googling the problem: in one forum there was a suggestion to click "initialize drive" and than to "repair" in DiscUtility. I clicked initialize drive and the drive is shown in DiscUtility, but "repair" and "verify" are greyed out. I read more posts on it, one posts suggested NOT to click initialize because that means format in Mac OS language (btw: ***, why is it not called format).
That is the situation at the moment. What is the best - if there is - way to get my data back? DiscWarrior?
I very much appreciate your advice!
Daniel

"Initializing" a drive has been normal computer terminology for decades. "Formatting" generally referred to the high-level preparation also called "erasing." None of this is "Mac OS language."
Disk Warrior will not likely fix the problem you have. DW can repair a damaged directory, but your error suggests an even worse problem of directory corruption. I suggest you try using DW if you have it. Visit the Alsoft site to determine the limitations and usage of the version you have. It may not be able to boot your computer depending upon what version of DW you have and how new your computer is.
If you have no success with DW then see the following:
Basics of File Recovery
Files in Trash
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

External Drive: The Disk You Inserted Was Not Readable By This Computer

I have a 2TB Western Digital external drive that I've been using for a year or two as my backup for my Aperture libraries. Been working fine until now, I get the "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." Clicking "Initialize" takes me to disk utility with no usable options. Whatdoido?!
Did my laptop just become illiterate?

I had this exact issue with my external harddrive, I scrolled forums and did what they said and nothing, then I just happened to be in the app store and thought I would search for data recovery, a few came up and only a couple had ratings so I looked at Data Rescue 3, its £40 so I went ot their website for the trial version, downloaded and installed that, tried it and rescued a random file (limits obvioulsy on the trial verison) and it worked so paid the £40 and am currently saving all my files to another external harddrive.
Try out the trial first and if it works on one file i reccomend the the full program!
Good Luck!

Keep getting a "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" when I insert my printer cord into either USB port. Recently installed a portable hard drive for back up purposes. Related?

Keep getting a "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" when I insert my printer cord into either USB port. Recently installed a portable hard drive for back up purposes. Related?

Does your printer have a slot for an SD card? Is there are card in the slot? If so, the computer is trying to mount that card as an external device. It might be corrupted so that it can't be read.

"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" on NTFS ext HDD

I have spent hours trying to find a solution to this problem, but alas - nothing really useful came up. Therefore I now turn to you, Discussions - you're my only hope!
And to the case:
I just got a brand new shiny and aluminiy MacBook Pro a couple of weeks back, and since my last laptop was a PC, I have been very content ever since switching.
However, this week I bought a new Lacie 2TB external HDD (also shiny) and backed up a lot of stuff from my Windows days.
I partitioned it in Windows and made two NTFS partitions (approx. 1.8TB + 200GB). It was not an option for me to partition it to HFS, as I need it to exchange files between my Mac (using ntfs-3g) and my (and other) Windows computers (and a lot of files exceed the FAT32 file size limit).
Unfortunately when I connect to my MacBook Pro (and my old 2005 PowerMac G5) it gives me the "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer", and I am not able to verify nor repair it in Disk Utility. It doesn't even show the partitions correctly, it only weirdly enough shows a 3 megabyte partition and 329.70 megabytes of free space.
It still, however, works fine on my Windows computers. I also have the 1TB version of the same Lacie HDD also with two NTFS formatted partitions, and that drive shows up nicely on my MBP.
Does anyone know how/have an idea on how/have a magic potion to fix this?
- I have run chkdisk on it on my Windows comp and it showed no errors.
- I have also tried booting Snow Leopard in 32bit kernel mode (as someone presumably had that help earlier) but with no luck.
- I've connected it both via USB and FW. Same problem.
- I've installed and later uninstalled NTFS-3g and MacFuse - no change.
- And as mentioned I've connected it to my PowerMac G5 (w. Leopard), that also couldn't read it properly.
It is not an option for me to reformat it right now, as I have nowhere to back up that drive (and buying another new external drive is out of the question, as I semi-accidentally spent all my money on the new MBP ).
Anyone helping me solve this issue will receive 10 units of my deepest gratitudes (and maybe a couple of muffins, should the person drop by some time).
Thanks in advance.

Well it seems to work somewhat now, after some playing around.
And here's what I did:
- I downloaded the bootable System Rescue CD
- I booted it up from my PC. And entered the TestDisk utility, where I resaved the partition table (even though it already showed up fine). (If you don't have an extra PC to boot from, the TestDisk utility can also be installed on Mac OS, I just don't have the skills to do that).
- Tadaa! Now I was able to read the disk and its two partitions (one NTFS and one exFAT) on my MacBook! But... When I plugged the external drive into my PC again it didn't show up anything, and in the disk manager, it detected the drive structure as being all unallocated space.
Upon plugging it into my Mac again, it once again showed my old fiend, the "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" error. Sigh.
- So once again I booted up the System Rescue CD and TestDisk, and rewrote the partition structure. One weird thing was, that TestDisk this time detected the disk as being mac formatted, so I had to manually select the "Intel/PC" structure option. After rewriting the structure the disk once again it showed up nicely on my Windows PC.
- Before plugging it back into my Mac, I decided to try and install MacFuse and NTFS-3g.
- Since MacFuse doesn't apparently support the 64-bit kernel mode, I booted up my MBP in forced 32-bit kernel mode and voila - I could now read (and write) to my NTFS disk and connect it to my PC and back, without it messing up again.
I won't mark this issue as solved just yet, as I will need to see if it lasts. Also it's not really a lasting solution to be forced to boot into 32-bit mode, so I'll have to see if there's another way at some point.
Message was edited by: Nilfisken

I plug in my printer and I get a message that says, "the disk you inserted is not readable." It didn't do this before but after I installed a segate hardrive software. I have removed the segate hardrive software but the message still appears.

I plug in my printer and I get a message that says, "the disk you inserted is not readable." It didn't do this before but after I installed a segate hardrive software. I have removed the segate hardrive software but the message still appears. What can I do to remove this error.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Triple-click the line of text below on this page to select it:
kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}' | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that. No typing is involved in this step.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
{ sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|org\.(amav|apac|cups|isc|ntp|postf|x)/{print $3}'; sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook; sudo crontab -l; } 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.
Step 3
{ launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'; crontab -l 2> /dev/null; } | open -f -a TextEdit
Step 4
ls -1A /e*/{la,mach}* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts .la* 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 5
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' | open -f -a TextEdit
Remember, steps 1-5 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal.

"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" 10.9.3 - WD-500GB WD5000AADS

Mac Book Pro
MAC OS Extended(Journaled)
Capacity:97GB
Version-10.9.3
Hello Mac Fam,
I recently purchased a HD-Enclosure (Insignia 3.0 desktop hard disk enclosure),since my WD 500Gig Hard Drive broke(power cable broke). Before the Hard Drive broke, it worked perfectly on my Mac Book Pro (Read/Write). I was extremely excited when i purchased the HD Enclosure since i thought that it would work perfectly, like it did before. However, i keep getting the following message ""The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer". I haven't tried anything, since upon reading various post regarding this problem, i get bits of information but never the complete solution.I have many pictures/files/etc. that i refuse to lose. I know this can be fixed, just need a bit of help to get it done. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Merry Christmas to you all, and hopefully someone can help me out.
-guS

OK. for anyone who has had or is having this problem, I think I've found a solution, or a least one that worked for me:
Select your start-up drive, do a Get info (Command-I)
At the bottom where it says sharing and permissions, I had two items: System and Everyone. Both were set to Read. I unlocked using administrator password. I then reset the two items above to Read and Write. I then clicked on the little plus sign which brought up a dialog window. In that I selected Administrator and then set that to Read and Write.
My audio CD's now mount as they always have for years! Very odd, and honestly I could not explain why this worked, but I figured it out myself, something that I now feel I owe my self a fine Belgian beer.
Good luck

"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" error message

Hello. I've had my iMac for a little over three months and I've encountered a strange problem. I play Warcraft III, and whenever I insert the disk into the drive, I get an error message saying "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" and it gives me the options to ignore or eject. I've gotten the same message with Starcraft as well. I also tried putting in the iPod Nano install disk with the same result. CD-Rs and Audio cds work smoothly though. I called Apple technical support and they told me to call 1-800-MY-APPLE to schedule an appointment with my local branch to bring it in. I just wanted to make sure no one on these forums can help me. All help is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.
iMac (Early 2006) Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Steve, the original poster made clear he was on a core duo iMAC which ONLY runs OS X (discounting non Apple OSes of course!)
Therefore there is no extension manager. But I guess he would thank you for trying to help anyway.

"The disk you inserted is not readable"

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for