Burning DVD for data problems

I am having the same problem mentioned - I cannot burn a dvd OR a cd from iPhoto. I called Apple and they said to dump my cache which I did. The problem I am now having and had over and over is when I try to drag the photos to the dvd, I get a message that one or more photos is busy and then it cancels the whole thing. I have no idea what they are talking about - none of the photos are busy. I have the updated firmware and system 10.9.3.

I want to back up my photos and am going crazy - andyone know what this means??
Thanks,
MArty

Aaaargh! I just tried the whole thing again - spent more than an hour dragging and labeling photos onto the DVD - went thru the whole burning process and most of verifying and then it just spit the disk out and said it was no good. The drive won't even accept the dvd now!! This is really aggravating!

Apple - where are you?? If so many of us are having this problem, why can't it be fixed?? This is an awful waste of time and disks and I'm still unable to back up my photos!

I think I tried to answer this one for you before Tom. Have you upgraded your firmware for the Drive? That is the first place to start. This drive had problems with the firmware. I had the same problems, upgraded the firmware and no longer have the problems. If I recall the problem can ruin your drive. It also has something to do with the firmware not supporting the newer speed DVDs.

Hi Thomas,
I am the one that posted the two most recent messages - please look again at this thread and read the last two.
Thanks,
MArty

So you did. I am not sure I can answer your question. How I would start, however, is to find out the model number of the DVD drive you have. Then I would do a search to see if there are any specific problems with that drive. For instance, Tom, the orginal poster, had a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-104 drive. The firmware in this drive was bad. Both Apple and third parties released a stand alone fix. This drive was old, so I doubt it is in your iMac. However, a similar issue might exist for your machine. You can find the exact drive you have by going under "About this Mac" under the Blue Apple logo up top.

Yes, I checked that - I have the same drive but a newer one with the updated firmware. When I tried to install a firmware update, it told me I didn't need it, so I have the newest.

I actually called Apple today and they had me enpty my cache files and if that didn't work, they said I'd have to reinstall the system! Taht doesn't sound right. But I couldn't burn a CD with iphoto pics either, but I could burn a CD with other data files.

So frustrating...

Let us forget what Apple told you temporarily. They means well, but sometimes they are slow to the game.

Use the system profiler and write down the exact drive you have, and the number of the firmware update. Also, what brand of DVD disks are you using, and what is the write speed. Have you tried using other disks from a different company, and with a different (slower write speed)? DVD disks are not all equal.

Also, does this just happen when you burning DVD disks using iPhoto, or does it happen with other applications as well? If you only use it for iPhoto, please state this. In order to get to the bottom of the problem we need lots of specifics. If it happens for another application other than iPhoto, what applications are these.

Have you installed any software updates lately? For iPhoto?

Thank you Tom - it sounds like we had just the same problem - I have the same DVD and the most current firmware also. It seems like the on,y other variable is which DVD's I use, and I don't really feel like wasting a bunch of them testing. Seems it should work with any blank media. the ones I have right now are GQ 4x DVD-R discs.

I will try another brand to see if that makes a difference, but I had the same problem trying to burn a CD from iPhoto, where I could burn anything else from my iMac to the same media - no problem. So, at this point I have no way to back up my photos which makes me very nervous.

So with the G5 does everything work fine? I assume it must be a new model of Superdrive? Or what would be different?

Tom, congratulations on the new iMac G5! If, I recall, you either never installed the third party firmware update, which fixed the problem for me, or you did install the update, but did not report it. For Marty's benefit, there is a third party firmware update for this drive, that goes beyond the official update. Pioneer is not real good at updating Mac drives, so a third party has taken this step for it.

Below are a couple of links to supply you with more info on the topic. The first site is a French site, in french. You can use Google's transalation tool, which transalates websites if you do not speak french. It helps a little. The second link is one that explains a little bit about the drive. These sources will provide you with a good start to see if you need to update your drive.

The Apple firmware installer will likley tell you you do not need to update the firmware because you have the latest "official" version of the firmware. This does not mean the firmware is not your problem, it just means the computer sees that you have the latest offical version of the firmware installed, regardless of whether it is defective or not.

If it turns out you cannot use this third party firmware update (as some people report is the case who have internal Apple supplied drives), your only option probably is trying to find the lowest availalbe write speed disks you can find.

Good luck.

Opps, I fogot to add the links.

http://www.macetvideo.com/flashpioneerosx/flashpioneerosx.html

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Tips/pioneerflash/pioneerf lash.html