CD alert...disk not readable or show up empty on Mavericks

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Level 1

4 points

CD alert...disk not readable or show up empty on Mavericks

I have several CD's with pictures that worked on my old iMac. When I insert on this newer Mac with Mavericks, I keep getting the alert :This disk was not readable....ignore or eject only options. Those do not show up on Finder as an inserted CD. A couple of CD's that did show up stated they were blank. I know they are not. All of these CDs used to work with older iMac. I am no computer wizard and need basic, elementary instructions please.

There must be something very simple to resolve this. I tried turning off my external hard drive but that made no difference. I see nothing in prior threads that were helpful or understandable to me.

Thanks.

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9), 2.GGHzIntel Corei5/ 4GB 1333MHz

Posted on Aug 7, 2014 10:50 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Aug 7, 2014 1:33 PM in response to JFSSDCA

What kind of machine do you have?

Is it possible that you are inserting them upside down?

What kind of disks are these?

Do you still have your old iMac?

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Answer 2

JFSSDCA Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 7, 2014 4:20 PM in response to Loner T

If by "what machine do you have?"...refers to my computer: I have a 21.5 inch desktop iMac, running Mavericks OSX.10.9.4 ...specifics were in my original post. The CD slot is on the side of the iMac, and I am not inserting the CDs wrong. I m no wizard, but that much I know.

The CDs are just basic CD-Rs and DVD-R (Fugi) that you buy everywhere. I copied pictures ONTO these CDs and have a few DVD videos I made from iMovie and burned to DVD.....and have viewed them in the past on the old iMac...if I recall, think I've viewed them on this newer iMac too.

Some CDs and DVDs were burned using the old iMac. I do not still have the old computer.

I have read older posts regarding similar issue. I have not seen any satisfactory answers, and many were not answered at all....which leaves me to wonder.

I may have to use my telephone and call for tech support if no one in the community has encountered this and knows the cure.

Thank you for taking your time to respond.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Aug 7, 2014 5:10 PM in response to JFSSDCA

Apologies, but wanted to avoid any bad assumptions on my part.

Do any other discs work in this iMac?

If the sessions are not finalized then they will play only on the original machine, but since you have played these on the current iMac in the past, they should be playable.

If you take one of the discs and put it in, does it give you a choice to ignore it? If yes, Can you see it in iMac Disk Utility and does it show a file system and the size of the DVD/CD?

There could be an issues with your DVD drive, which you can try and diagnose with OS X Mavericks: Use Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test.

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Answer 4

JFSSDCA Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 7, 2014 7:51 PM in response to Loner T

I tried a real music CD =worked fine --it went to iTunes & began playing song. I found 2 of my DVD videos and they went to DVD player and worked. However, every single CD I try that I had photos, documents or recipes ..come up blank. In Finder, there is a yellow& black "Burn" symbol next to those CDs. I am sure that is not supposed to be there. Disk Utility does not show them it at all. The icon on desktop says Untitled CD.fpbf , No Items. I know this is significant, but do not know what to do now. Hopefully this will have more meaning to you and will enable you to assist better.

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Aug 7, 2014 8:29 PM in response to JFSSDCA

The extension indicates that files were indeed intended to be written to these disks, but the original iMac never 'finalized' them, which means a Table-of-Contents was not written. It was readable on the original iMac with the references to the files you intended to write.

If you have an older DVD drive, it may be able to read the contents without needing the ToC. Your new iMac's DVD drive seems to be fine.

Even if it is not a Mac, for example a regular CD/DVD player may be able show you the content. If it does, the information is there but the new iMac cannot read it. I suspect that it may have been readable in the past, but with firmware updates and software updates such partial discs may no longer be readable.

Please try this in an older player. In the Current iMac, if you right-click on the disc and choose Get Info, you will see the details of it. You can search for the .fpbf extension in your favorite search engine to read more if you are interested.

It is also possible that older version of OSX will allow you read these, which 10.9.4 may not let you.

It is an OSX implementation of a 'file system' on top of a Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) device.

Please post back on your findings.

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Aug 8, 2014 6:11 PM in response to JFSSDCA

Please see this link - OS X Mountain Lion: Create and use a burn folder. It has information about burn folders.

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Answer 7

bookdiva

Level 1

4 points

Dec 4, 2014 11:02 AM in response to Loner T

OK. I used the microfiber wrapped around cc trick. I found an index card somehow had worked itself inside the slot.

Feel stupid, but you might consider that something is stuck inside the drive.

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