Burning a CD-R

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Level 1

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Burning a CD-R

A problem has developed I never had before. First of all, I have a MacBook OS X 10.5.8, and iTunes 10.6.3. For years I have been able to purchase music through iTunes and then burn that music to CD's, CD's I could then play on my Bose or my auto CD player. Lately, though, I'm able to do a successful burn. I put a fresh Memorex CD-R in my MacBook and follow the usual sets: move the desired music to an iTunes Playlist, then click on Burn Playlist to Disk. For 10-15 I see "Initializing," and then "Finishing" – and nothing has been burned to the Memorex disk. I error message I receive contains no helpful information: only something along the lines of "Cannot burn disk." (No error code.) Does anyone have an idea what my have changed in how I am trying to burn a Playlist to a disk?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Aug 24, 2014 1:21 PM

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Answer 1

RayKemble Author

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Aug 24, 2014 1:24 PM in response to RayKemble

I see I skipped a few critical words in my question. I had meant to say " ... I'm NOT able to do a successful burn. ... For 10-15 SECONDS I see "Initializing," and then "Finishing" ... " Apologies!

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

411,175 points

Aug 24, 2014 1:45 PM in response to RayKemble

Many things possible. Software error. Firmware error. Drive dead. You will have to do systematic testing to decide which.

Can you burn outside of iTunes? For example, with Finder's burn feature?

Can you burn with a different utility such as the free application Burn? Note, you may want this for testing as I think it lets you disable the laser so you don't wastes discs during testing.

When I see you write 10.5.8 I think old. When I see notebook drive I think "more delicate". It would not be at all surprising if this one had given up. In fact not at all surprising, but still you may wish to test other things. You may also wish to have this relocated to the MB hardware forum as I suspect if anything it isn't an iTunes-specific problem, particularly if you haven't changed anything there.

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Answer 3

RayKemble Author

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Aug 26, 2014 1:40 PM in response to Limnos

Thanks, Limnos, but I'm afraid your very terminology tells me you know lots more about how these things work. "Burn outside f iTunes"? "Finder's burn feature"? " ... free application Burn"? I'm lost. You're correct, though, in thinking "old." My MacBook is 6-8 years old, maybe older. And I know my OS is antiquated. Am I a lost cause? Should I take my MacBook to the Apple geniuses and throw myself at their mercy? –Ray

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Answer 4

Limnos

Level 10

411,175 points

Aug 26, 2014 1:59 PM in response to RayKemble

I think it more likely it is a hardware feature but to determine for sure you have to eliminate all else. Antiquated OS has nothing to do with it. I just replaced the optical drive on my G4 Quicksilver for a second time. It runs OSX 10.4.11

You can burn CD with iTunes. You can burn data CDs (not the kind you stick into a CD player) in the general desktop interface, Finder. This at least eliminates an iTunes error.

Disc Burning Quick Assist - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1152

Before doing any of this, have you tried simply restarting your computer?

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