heyjude104

Q: El Capitan suddenly not recognizing optical drive

I have a MacBook Air running El Capitan, purchased 3/2016. I purchased the optical drive at the same time I purchased the computer. I have been using the external drive to burn DVD's and CD's. All worked well until I plugged the optical drive in yesterday. I opened iTunes, plugged in the drive, inserted a cd, and the window showing I had inserted the cd never popped up. The finder doesn't show the drive, even though I have checked in preferences for it to show. The only way I could safely eject the cd was by going to disk utility where I could see the drive and the cd, and eject it.

 

I checked to make sure that the drive still operates by inserting both a DVD or CD on the optical drive. Both will play properly, but still have to return to the disk utility in order to eject them since the drive doesn't show up anywhere else.

 

With iTunes running, and the drive plugged in with a blank CD inserted, the "Burn playlist to disk" is grayed out, since the computer isn't recognizing the drive.

 

What can I do to get the computer/El Capitan to recognize the drive again?

MBA, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Aug 8, 2016 5:54 AM

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Q: El Capitan suddenly not recognizing optical drive

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 19, 2016 5:04 PM in response to SigersonLTD
    Level 7 (24,287 points)
    Safari
    Sep 19, 2016 5:04 PM in response to SigersonLTD

    SigersonLTD wrote:

     

    Apologies, as I may have misled you.  DVD's are not mounting on this Mac at all. I thought that was clear. Putting a DVD in the "non-working Mac" will not garner any new info, as the DVD's are simply not mounting; they get spit right back out.

    No worries. . You also said...

    SigersonLTD wrote:

     

    Yes, and it will also recognize unformatted discs, and ask me what I want to do with them.

    If you put a blank DVD-R SL, does the non-working Mac hold it in and ask you what to do? If yes, are you allowed to burn the DVD from a well-known ISO on the non-working Mac? If the DVD stays in, right click on the ISO file, and choose Burn, expand the Burn box and choose the lowest burn rate, and verify and mount after burn.

  • by SigersonLTD,

    SigersonLTD SigersonLTD Sep 20, 2016 11:37 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 20, 2016 11:37 AM in response to Loner T

    Okay, so, that worked, however, I still can't mount a DVD that I've bought over the counter.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 20, 2016 12:27 PM in response to SigersonLTD
    Level 7 (24,287 points)
    Safari
    Sep 20, 2016 12:27 PM in response to SigersonLTD

    Does the DVD you burnt, stay in the DVD drive? If yes, download the appropriate ISO from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/home and burn it and test? Were you trying to Install windows using a DVD?

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