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cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
i have a eMac and when i put a blank DVD in the drive (just put it in) it just makes a weird noise for about 1:30 min and then ejects it without a notice it doesn't even show up on the computer. PLEASE HELP ME! I also have a problem when i plug in my external hard drive to the USB port it does not show up in my computer at all but the weird thing is when i pull cord out it has the usual message about data might not me saved. whats up with my computer? Can you help me
 

imacintel

macrumors 68000
Mar 12, 2006
1,581
0
cremet said:
i have a eMac and when i put a blank DVD in the drive (just put it in) it just makes a weird noise for about 1:30 min and then ejects it without a notice it doesn't even show up on the computer. PLEASE HELP ME! I also have a problem when i plug in my external hard drive to the USB port it does not show up in my computer at all but the weird thing is when i pull cord out it has the usual message about data might not me saved. whats up with my computer? Can you help me

Have you used blannk DVDs in your drive before? If not, check to see if your drive supports DVDs. Also, what model eMac is this? What OSX versio are you running? Need info.
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
The G4 power mac 4.4, and running panther and i have a super drive (supports all disks)
 

imacintel

macrumors 68000
Mar 12, 2006
1,581
0
cremet said:
The G4 power mac 4.4, and running panther and i have a super drive (supports all disks)


hmm...now I would phone up apple. Still got applecare? You may need your drive replaces.
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
no its been 3 years, do you know about my external hard drive?
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
it reads everything exept blank DVDs and ya its weird its working but it doesn't show up at all in any thing ive searched and nohting
 

iBlue

macrumors Core
Mar 17, 2005
19,180
15
London, England
cremet said:
it reads everything exept blank DVDs and ya its weird its working but it doesn't show up at all in any thing ive searched and nohting

do you have another computer? Do these blank DVDs show up on that? although that doesn't explain the external hard drive problem.

Have you repaired permissions? It can't hurt. (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.)
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
Found It

i found while doing the utility but the icon is a white paper? what do i do?
 

iBlue

macrumors Core
Mar 17, 2005
19,180
15
London, England
I don't think it understands what it is. (that white paper is usually an unreadable file)

Can you control click and "get info" and see what it says?
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
whats this mean: Owners Enabled : No, S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported


File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
 

iBlue

macrumors Core
Mar 17, 2005
19,180
15
London, England
I'm not totally sure what's wrong but that does not sound good. (these are phrases I heard on my powerbook, which had a hard drive problem) It should be able to verify S.M.A.R.T status. (OS extended journaled is OK)


It won't hurt to repair disk. You'll need your restore disk for that. Insert it and restart. After the chime hold down C until the grey apple and gear spinning thing appears. it can take longer than normal to read this by the way. In the installer menu, click disk utility and go to that same screen you saw earlieir but this time click repair disk.

This should just set things right, not harm anything - at least give you more info.
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
nothing do you know why it wont show up anywhere else why only there
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
OK, FWIW, my nearly 4 year old 800MHz iMac's DVD drive reads disks but no longer accepts blank ones (I'd help fully look into the situation, but I gave it to my parents and they're 1500 miles away). I think the SuperDrive is just gone as far as the write laser's concerned. Just my opinion, but mine acted the same way yours does, and it's probably the same model of drive.

As far as the external, does any other system read it? Does it work when plugged into any other USB port (I forget... do you have more than one?)? Does any other USB device function OK? If it's not phenomenally important stuff, would you consider a reformat using Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility?

I hope your answers can help someone else help you. Unfortunately, I'm off to bed. Best of luck!

iBlue said:
It won't hurt to repair disk. You'll need your restore disk for that.
Unless I'm misreading - and I'm tired so I might be - this is about an external drive, so the Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility app should work just fine for repairing it (if it can).
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
no i use blank ones all the time (the same ones) i dont know why i tried plugging it in all of the ports and the disk repair and none of them work it there is nothing wrong with it. What would happen if i restored it
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
cremet said:
what would happen if i restored it
You do not want to restore your Mac. It will wipe out everything. We're talking about getting the external to work, right? So do not restore your Mac! Use Disk Utility, pick the external drive (if you can), and select "Repair Disk" on the right.

If you don't mind erasing it, click the Erase tab and use that page to erase and reformat it.

Just be sure you're doing it to the external drive.

cremet said:
no i use blank ones all the time (the same ones) i dont know why i tried plugging it in all of the ports and the disk repair and none of them work it there is nothing wrong with it. What would happen if i restored it
I'm a bit confused, but unless I'm wrong, there are two issues: the SuperDrive and the external, right?

If so, my guess - and it's just a guess, mind you - is that the SuperDrive write mechanism is gone. No fix available, you'd have to replace the drive.

The external can't be "restored" because basically you'd need a disk image for that, and you don't have one.

First try repairing it, if you can.
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
yes there is 2 problems. I tried all of that but how do i change the format of it so ill be able to use it it only shows up in the disk utility. i dont know what to do. fot the superdrive can i buy and external one?
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
cremet said:
yes there is 2 problems. I tried all of that but how do i change the format of it so ill be able to use it it only shows up in the disk utility. i dont know what to do. fot the superdrive can i buy and external one?
For the external, in Disk Utility, select its icon (NOT your internal drive's), click the Erase tab to the right, name the drive something, and click Erase. That'll format it and erase everything on it so don't do it unless you don't need to try more to recover the info.

And you can buy external DVD burners for $100 or less, AFAIK. I think you only have USB 1.1, which is wicked slow for them. Do you have Firewire as well? That's a much better bet.
 

cremet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
13
0
ya i have a firewire port. but is there a way to change the format without eraseing it? can i convert it? whats restore do?
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
cremet said:
ya i have a firewire port. but is there a way to change the format without eraseing it? can i convert it? whats restore do?
No way to change the format without erasing it. Can't convert - unless someone else knows more than I do about it, which is likely. Restore takes a disk image and uses it to create an image on the drive. You don't have such an image, so you can't use that option.
 
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