Why is my disk drive scratching CDs?

For some reason my disk drive keeps leaving scratches on CDs, DVDs, etc. I am very careful in handling discs, and they always leave that disk drive with small scratches on them.

something inside the optical drive may be loose/slightly broken that is scratching it. If you have any part of your origional 1 year warranty or AppleCare left and live within 50 miles of an Apple retail store, Apple technicians will come to you. If not, you should lug it in for diagnosis/repair.

Similar Messages

I have bought a new laptop which does not have a Disk Drive for CDs. How can I load my Acrobat Pro X on to this computer

I have bought a new laptop which does not have a Disk Drive for CDs. How can I load my Acrobat Pro X on to this computer

Download it from https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-downloads.html

My disk drive reads CDs, but it won't read DVDs anymore.

I have a 21'' mac desktop computer that is in great condition. Recently, the disk drive stopped reading DVDs. When I put the disk in, it spins around for a while before it automatically ejects. CDs still work perfectly fine, both buring and reading. It is just DVDs that get spit out. I have tried many different DVDs, both commercial and burned ones I have. Niether work. I believe they have all been NTSC DVDs (I don't think I have any PAL), and I am running Leopard I think. Any help would be appreciatted.

There is no Mountain Lion DVD. You purchase and download it via the App Store. You must be running 10.6.8 or later. Before you download see this:
Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer
1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/
    Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button.
    Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move
    the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You
    must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes
    installing.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
a. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
b. After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left
      side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
c. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one.
      Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
      partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until
      the process has completed.
d. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side
      list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
e. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the
      button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
f. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash
     drive size.
3. Locate the saved Mountain/Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
a. Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
b. Open Disk Utility.
c. Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
d. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
e. Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
f. Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop into the Source entry field.
g. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.
As an alternative to the above (you still have to do your own download of Lion/Mountain Lion) you can try using Lion DiskMaker 2.0 that automates the process of Steps 2 through 4.

Disk drive disappears

I've got a Powermac G4 DP 800 that the disk drive works fine, but when I attach a hard drive to the ATA ribbon, neither drive shows up,not in Disk Utility, not even in System Profiler. Unhook the hard drive, again disk drive works fine. Tried a different hard drive, same thing happens. Changed locations on the ribbon, same thing happens. The hard drives came out of an iMac G5 that went down,so I was just sticking my hard drives in the G4 for some more storage. Even if both hard drives were bad, why would the disk drive disappear even in Disk Profiler? Looks like the computer would still see the disk drive.

The problem now is the HDs are SATA with no master slave jumper settings. I can have a 160gb hd, a80gb hd, or a disk drive. I've got an open spot for a card. I'll get a card and ribbon and I'll see how that works. Neither the WD 160 nor the Seagate 80 have any jumper settings for master/slave and I've got them on SATA/IDE adapters to attach to the ribbons. I'll let you know if it helps.
It would help to have the specifics of your setup since there's things beyond standards specifications here (this is generally helpful when asking any hardware question, especially if you have made modifications to the computer). I have a dual 800 G4 tower and it doesn't take SATA drives, so I am guessing that you have an SATA PCI card. Also, I'm surprised they made SATA drives as small as 80GB and 160GB. Can you provide specific model numbers for these drives?

Disk Drive ejecting itself

My Time Machine disk drive has been "ejecting" itself since I installed Snow Leopard. I'm not unplugging it, or turning it off. I'm not touching it.
I'm getting the following error message:
"The disk was not ejected properly. If possible, always eject a disk before unplugging it or turning it off."
My question is why would a disk drive be "ejecting" itself. I've turned off the auto backups, and unselected the drive as the backup disk. It is still "ejecting" itself which leads me to believe the problem isn't with Time Machine but with something else - something connected with Snow Leopard because this wasn't happening five days ago before I installed SL.

judithnewman wrote:
My Time Machine disk drive has been "ejecting" itself since I installed Snow Leopard. I'm not unplugging it, or turning it off. I'm not touching it.
I'm getting the following error message:
"The disk was not ejected properly. If possible, always eject a disk before unplugging it or turning it off."
My question is why would a disk drive be "ejecting" itself. I've turned off the auto backups, and unselected the drive as the backup disk. It is still "ejecting" itself which leads me to believe the problem isn't with Time Machine but with something else - something connected with Snow Leopard because this wasn't happening five days ago before I installed SL.
Does your external drive have its own power source or does it receive its power over the data cable?

Why does my mac wake up from sleep while it is closed when I plug in the charger and viceversa (plug or unplug)?? It is latest 13 Pro with disk drive 2012-2013

I dont know why it happens. I clos my mac, it goes to sleep and when it is already sleeping if i plug the charger then it wakes up, or at least the fans and the white led light near to the infrared thing turns on. And this also happens if it is sleeping with the charger plugged and whenever i want to quit the plug cause its already charged it turns on. All this happens with the lid (top cover) closed and only when it is sleeping and I unplug when it is pluged, or plug if it is not. I have some more Macbook pro olders 2010, and 2009-8 with 10.9.2, and this thing does not happen to them. Please if someone knows tell me??? If it is not clear is the Macbook Pro 13 with 3.0 usb, disk drive, the latest that apple announced with the disk drive, so i think it is late 2012 or 2013

There are two distinct sets of settings for Energy-Saver items -- one for Battery, one for Power Adapter.
When you plug in the adapter, it needs to wake up and change over to the other settings -- sort of like the hospital waking you up to be sure you get your sleeping pill.
The later versions of Power Management are more sophisticated than older versions, so they are more likely to do this "correctly" -- to wake up and change over.

HT4889 Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive, it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive. Why is it looking for other computers?

I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive. I told it to look for a drive, yet it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive ... it just endlessly looks for other computers. Why is it looking for other computers at all, when I told it not to?

Wow, the wording in Migration Assistant is misleading. I've never used it before, so I thought I would try to copy my files from the external drive ... my old iMac died, but I managed to get everything I need off it, using the 'cp' command in single-user mode. So I guess I'll just have to manually copy the files from the external drive to the new machine. I was hoping that Migration Assistant might help somehow, but obviously not.
Thanks for the quick reply!

Why are there multiple drives in Disk Utility?

When using Disk Utility, why is each disk listed twice and what is the difference between the two? If I'm erasing a CD which one is better to use?

The top entry is the drive. Any partitions (volumes) are listed, indented, below it. To erase a CD-RW, select the drive.

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

Yes, that is a Catch 22. If you have another Mac you can connect your Mac to it in the Target Disk Mode, Transferring files between two computers using FireWire, and use Disk Utility on the second Mac to try to run the Hardware Test from there. Not sure if it's possible to a connected Mac though.
You can try this several times in the Terminal app and then see if a disk can be fully inserted:
Enter the following command followed by the Enter or Return key:
drutil eject
Do it several times and then try another disk. (A long shot).

Why doesn't my Macbook Pro disk drive work?

I used to have an old white MacBook and that disk drive didn't work as well as some other problems... the people in the Apple Store couldn't fix it and so gave me a free upgrade to a MacBook pro (great, right?!).
Everything on it works perfectly except for the fact... that the disk drive doesn't work, just like on my old one.
When I go to put a CD/DVD in (I've tried many incase it's the actual disk) nothing happens whatsoever. Nothing pulls the disk in, and there is no icon on my desktop/Finder to let me know it's recognised. If you push it all the way in it gets stuck and there is no way to eject it... It's as if there isn't a drive at all?
It doesn't make much sense because my MacBook Pro is brand new.
Taking it back to the shop causes a lot of hassle and usually when I get it back again, something else is broken.
Maybe I'm just cursed...
Any advice on how to get it working? I've tried the trouble shooting, it doesn't help.
Thanks!
Jess

Hi, I have tried those things, bit nervous to try the Power Manager reset - apparently it can cause changes to your data?
I tried the SMC and no different.
I'm a bit anxious about bringing it in for service again, because with my old MacBook we had to go to London and back five times, and each time we collected it the people had fixed the initial problem, but broken something else in the process. I was without a computer for almost a month!!
Right now I'm in my final year of studies and need my computer constantly. Can't afford to survive without it whilst it's fixed.
Is there definitely no other option?

TS1963 Migrating from Time Machine onExternal Disk, Why won't Migration Assistant see my USB Connected external disk drive?

I had to format my internal disk drive on my MacBook Pro, and reload Mountain Lion 10.8.3. The startup assistant could not see my external disk drive with the Time Machine backup files. After many tries I told it to skip restoring the files and let it boot up. I was able to see my 1 TByte external drive and could see the Time Machine files using Finder.
I started the Migration Assistant and told it to migrate from Time Machine Files on an external drive. It also did not see the backup drive. The only drive icon it showed was the Macintosh HD (my internal drive).
Isn't it supposed to show you the drive you are moving the files from? I tried starting it and it looked like it was going to try to migrate the files from the internal drive (to where I don't know, back to itselfl?) Or do I just not understand. Is it seeing the external drive, without identifying it (in the Migration Asst,)?
Really looks like it is going to back up the internal HD with files that are on the internal HD and not from Time Machine.
I need to restore my files and have been told I need to do so using Migration Assistant and not Time Machine.
Help pleae and soon, need to get my taxes finished!
Thanks!

I'm surprised that no one replied to this. But I learned a few things that may be helpful to some of you with this same question.
When you restore data from an external disk drive with Time Machine files on it. As you move through the dialog (in either System Startup or in the Migration Assistant) it will ask if you want to restore from an external disk with Time Machine files. If you select this option, it will show you only one Icon. You will expect to see your external disk drive listed as the source of the restore. The icon that is shown will look like your ilnternal drive and will be labeled something like Macintosh HD. That is not your internal drive, but is your backup drive. It is labeled the same as your internal disk drive and it is telling you that you have found the backup for your internal disk drive.
Would be nice if Apple would put a note of explanation about this as part of that dialog. I wasted several hours trying to make it work Finally I took a chance and selected the drive shown and it did restore my system. I ended up with two users since I did it from Migration Assistant. Had I done it from the System Startup, there would only be the one user.

System memory vs disk usage -- why is my hard drive almost full if my system memory is half empty?

I have a white Macbook, 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 GB of memory, Mac OS X, version 10.5.8, purchased in 2008. My Mac keeps warning me that my startup disk is almost full, and indeed Activity Monitor shows that my disk usage has minimal free space (2.31 GB). However, the System Memory tab shows that half my space is free.
Does the discrepancy mean that there is lots of space left on my Mac? If not, how can I identify if some sort of error is filling up my memory? Right now, I have a lot of music and documents stored on my laptop, but nothing else, and I would like to be sure it's those two things that are filling up the space.
What is the recommended method for adding more memory to my Mac, if nothing else?

There are two different types of memory in your Mac. There is system memory, more commonly referred to as RAM, and there is disk space. RAM is where the Mac works on data. Disk space is where data is stored for long term storage.
You are in serious danger of causing your Mac to die completely by running it with so little free space on your system drive. It is imperative that you start either deleting or move data off the disk drive. You should have 8 to 10 time as much free space at least at all times for OS X to run will.
A tool that can with cleaning up your disk drive is OmniDiskSweeper. It will tell you the files and fol,der that are using the most space. That will give you good candidates for deletion or movement.
Allan

Optical drive scratching new dvd's

I bought my macbook (black) back in June while on vacation and was able to watch a dvd on it in the airport on the way home. When I got home and watched another dvd I noticed it was scratched after watching it. I wasn't sure if it was already scratched or not, so I put in a new dvd and the macbook scratched it to the point it wasn't able to be read anymore. I took it in and they replaced the drive. Since then I have had another two disks get scratched, both of them new. I took it back in and had the drive replaced yet again. I just started watching another new movie and I heard a funny noise so I ejected the dvd. Again it was scratching the disk. I don't understand why this is happening. Any suggestions? (Yes I know I am a slow learner, but I keep hoping that a product this expensive won't eat dvd's.)
I don't know how many times apple is willing to replace an optical drive. Like I said, this is the third drive I am on. I have had my computer in the shop more than I have been able to use it!
black macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 GHz intel core duo, 512 MB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Windows XP

I have heard that moving the laptop will make the scratching worse. I could accept that as the cause if I was actually moving the computer when it scratches the disks, but that has not been the case when mine have been scratched. I don't understand why it scratches in the first place. Cars have cd and dvd players in them all the time and they don't seem to have those problems.

Disk Drive Irregularity

The disk drive on my iMac has been out of wack for about a year and a half now, it hasn't been more than a mild inconvenience as i had an external one but i've got to the point where i'm wandering why it isn't.
It can just about read CDs tho if i'm importing one with it each track has to be dragged one by one or it misses out a bunch, usually at the start of the CD, during witch it makes an abysmal racket most notably when it speeds up or slows down. It can't even recognize DVDs witch was the first problem for a while before the tetchyness with the CDs started.
We had a problem similar with an old Performa 5200 and it turned out something had to be tightened witch was easy enough, does it sound like anything along those lines or would itneed replacing to get any use out of it?
Thanks for reading

replace the drive

Disk drive isn't working, Macbook keeps freezing, what's going on?

I've had my laptop for about 2 years now, it's a Mid 2010 model Macbook Pro. I didn't have any problems with it until about 3 months ago. It started freezing randomly, and would give me this box in the middle of the screen of random colors/pixels. There is no input from trackpad or mouse, but everything keeps running. The screen freezes, but skype calls continue, youtube videos keep playing the sound, spotify will keep running, etc. It will do this randomly. For about a week it would do it a couple times a day, but then it stopped for weeks. It now does it randomly. The only way to fix it is with a hard shut off.
I also noticed that my Disk drive is not working. It does not recognize disks- blank cd-r, Cds.... It only seems to play dvds... It makes the sound like the drive is starting up when I try to play a cd, then shuts down immediately. It does this three or four times, then ejects the disk.
Has anyone else had issues like this? What can I do about the freezing?
My macbook pro seems to be running hot when I'm on sites like tumblr that have a lot of pictures or gifs. It never did that before. What's going on?

Check out: Troubleshoot the spinning beach ball/freezing & crashing and Troubleshoot the spinning beach ball
===================
Another help source (if you haven't already done so).
Go to your OS Help Menu. In the search field type dvd
Click on all the troubleshooting topics & Support Articles that pertain to your issue.
You can also do the same in Disk Utility. Open same up.
At the bottom left of the window, click on the purple button w/the "?" in the middle.
This will bring up the Help Menu.
===============
Try a different brand. Top forum favorites
CDs
FUJI
TDK
Verbatim
DVDs
Maxell
Verbatim
Make sure the DVDs are not dirty, smudged and/or scratched.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50448 How to Handle and Clean CD and DVD Discs
Your drive may need cleaning. Cleaning kits can be purchased from any store that sells CD/DVDs.

Why is my disk drive scratching CDs?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for