I have an iMac (21.5", late 2009) and I am trying to load some old Kodak Picture CDs to recover the images stored on them. When I insert the CD, the DVD drive tries to read it then gives up and ejects the disc. There is no error message.
Does anyone know of a way to get an iMac to read these CDs? Do I need a special driver? Or is there an external CD drive that can read them? Any suggestions appreciated.
iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)
I went out this morning and bought a USB Superdrive for $79 at my local Apple store. It reads all my discs just fine, including the Kodak ones that were the origin of the problem. So this thread can be closed, leaving behind just a faint whiff of suspicion that El Capitan is the evil spirit behind my sudden recent hardware issues after six years of problem-free use of my iMac.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice.
I agree with rkaufmann87 in that in case you replace the drive get an external drive a one with drawer loading. It's safer and disks are very unlikely to get stuck as they can in a slot loading drive. The external drive can be used with a new Mac if you upgrade at any time as nearly all new Macs do not have optical drives.
I'm afraid the likely cause is deterioration of the disk, which is why optical media is not really a candidate for back up and archiving. By all means try other machines. You might be lucky but there is no magic formula I'm afraid.
Terrence may be correct, however your DVD drive may need cleaning. Try other CDs (music or anything else) and see if they work. If they work, then Terrence is likely correct. If they do not work, go to your local office supply store and get a CD/DVD cleaning kit and try using that.
It's worse than I thought. Music CDs and DVDs will not read. An 'Allsop Ultra Prolens Cleaner' that I bought to clean the drive will not work either. In all cases the drive cycles a few times and then ejects the disc. Perhaps this is yet another 'feature' of El Capitan like not allowing me to use my second display.
I completely understand. Both the problem with my second display and now the problem with my DVD drive have happened purely coincidentally since I was foolish enough to upgrade to El Capitan. They have nothing to do with that software upgrade in any way, even though the second display hasn't functioned properly since the very moment I completed the upgrade. There is no possible cause and effect here. Any such suspicions must be banished from my mind! Thank you.
millport wrote:
It's worse than I thought. Music CDs and DVDs will not read. An 'Allsop Ultra Prolens Cleaner' that I bought to clean the drive will not work either. In all cases the drive cycles a few times and then ejects the disc. Perhaps this is yet another 'feature' of El Capitan like not allowing me to use my second display.
Sounds like the drive is kaput. Have it replaced or get an external DVD drive (I would recommend contacting OWC for assistance at www.macsales.com) and you should be fine.
Unlikely as it doesn't happen here, and I'm using two externals of a MBP, so that blows that theory too. Dodgy disks or dodgy drive.
Kodak Picture CD Won't Load
