Toast Burning Problems

Taylor,

FYI - Same problem here with my brand new Macbook Pro running MacOS X 10.5.5 - Toast 8.0.4 hangs during the "Preparing" phase.

memorex cd-r ... sometimes it will work and others it wont. i dont think the cd brand should matter as a 2k machiene should work on most brands if not all.

well i think that is a lot of BS as well .... personally im waiting for a firmware update 10.5.6 or snow leopard ... i think i did see something about these having 2 or 3 different drives in them i'll have to look for it again.

i also tried using burn to make cds ... worked the first time i was happy about that ... 3 days later used it again FAILED as well .... any sugestions?

After digging a bit, I found out that I could consistently burn disc images using Apple's Disk Utility with CDs, DVD-Rs, and DVD+Rs. For some media the published burn speed is inaccurate (especially the low grade ones: they'll say they work at 16x, but only work at 4x, for example) and so I have to reduce the burn speed from full speed to 1 or 2 levels down.

So the problem for me is not hardware. As for software, only Roxio's Toast gives me errors. If that is what you are using, I suggest a test run at low burn speed with Disk Utility. If that works... No firmware update can help, as it is Roxio's problem. If it does not... You may have to bring the laptop in for service.

Just as an example, I bought 4x DVD-R that could not be burned faster than 4x. They were cheap knock-offs and all my Macs except the new MBP were not allowing me to burn at 4x, and instead required me to burn at 2.4x. If I burned at 4x with my MBP, the process failed with a media error. If I burned them at 2.4x the process succeeded consistently (10 or more images). Roxio does not even start the process, and instead hangs the process before preparing the burner.

Hop this helps clarify my results.

To solve your problem for now, you can use Roxio to burn an image on your hard drive, not a disk, and then burn the image to DVD using Apple's Disk Utility.

well i have confirmed that toast works every once in a while ... if it does not work it hangs on preparing

like i stated before i used a different prog. "burn" it worked 1 time then failed 2 times. so its either hardware of the OS. from that i cant imagin 2 buring progs. having the same problem that worked perfectly fine with my early 2008 MBP.

when i get home i will try the disk utility and post what happens.

I agree with you that there is a difference in the OS, because the new drive is on the SATA bus and no longer the ATA bus. In fact, Roxio does not even recognize the bus on my MBP. But all of the Apple programs I tried seem to recognize this change with no problem.

So there may be the need for a specific update for other 3rd party programs. Alternatively, Apple may provide some sort of uniform ATA/SATA bridging capability to enhance compatibility - which would probably fix everything at the same time.

Here's hoping at least one of these things happens soon!

I needed to copy a dual-layer DVD, so I used the burner via my finder and got an error. (used Sonic Data discs) Next I opened Toast 8.0 and got the following two errors about half way through the burn.



I went and got my old MacBook Pro, opened Toast 8.0 and the disc burnt fine with NO errors. So, it looks like either I have a bad optical drive in my new MBP, or the drive doesn't like Sonic Data media.

This really ticks me off. I had so many optical drive problems with the first MacBook I owned. Same type of errors and they replaced the drive 2x.It never did work right. I could only burn a couple of brands of media in it. MatSHITa drives are crap, IMHO.

Has anyone burnt a dual-layer DVD successfully in a new aluminum MacBook Pro? If so, what brand of media did you use? TIA!

Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support' (designed exclusively for an iPhone/iPod touch)

well i actually have an LG drive in my MBP not the crapy drive.

Yes Mac Medic, I have burned a DVD+R DL correctly using Roxio 8.0.4 on my new MBP Late 2008. It burned and verified correctly. The media I used was purchased at Costco: Imation/TDK DVD+R DL 8x Speed 8.5GB, media code RITEK (read using DVD Media Inspector).

My Late 2008 MBP has a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-868 drive.

Toast allowed me to burn at 4X, I think, as it took approximately 25 mins to burn about 8GB.

I am conducting another test using Disk Utility as we speak. I'll post the results as soon as I can.

i would try toast again i had one or two burns work and all the rest failed but this is not dvd there cd-r. same problem with the app burn. still have yet to try disk utility.