CD Drive - media hanging drive

[Blue26]

Purchased a refurb iMac 27" about a month ago, it's my first Mac and I'm thrilled with it.

I've come across an issue reading some old CDs I had lying around. They all contain photos or movie files and were created with the PC I replaced with the mac.

I can read any other media with the mac (DVDs, CDs) but there are a handful of these CDs that when installed, will not read or be recognized by the optical drive and will just spin. Of course they then won't eject either .. fortunately I came across an article that had several tricks for removing stuck media. After trying terminal prompt commands and several other tricks, I booted while holding Option down and then was able to eject from boot screen.

The only thing I can think of is that I may not have closed out the session after copying the files from the PC. Could that cause the Mac drive to hang up ? I'm happy to blame the media and not the drive, but annoying that there is not a hardware override to eject the disk, rather than doing a forced shut down and restart.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Spikestrip]

Purchased a refurb iMac 27" about a month ago, it's my first Mac and I'm thrilled with it.

I've come across an issue reading some old CDs I had lying around. They all contain photos or movie files and were created with the PC I replaced with the mac.

I can read any other media with the mac (DVDs, CDs) but there are a handful of these CDs that when installed, will not read or be recognized by the optical drive and will just spin. Of course they then won't eject either .. fortunately I came across an article that had several tricks for removing stuck media. After trying terminal prompt commands and several other tricks, I booted while holding Option down and then was able to eject from boot screen.

The only thing I can think of is that I may not have closed out the session after copying the files from the PC. Could that cause the Mac drive to hang up ? I'm happy to blame the media and not the drive, but annoying that there is not a hardware override to eject the disk, rather than doing a forced shut down and restart.

Thanks for any advice.

That's not expected behavior at all. Your computer is under warranty, take it to Apple and have them look at it. They will probably replace your optical drive, and for free.

 

[fa8362]

That's not expected behavior at all. Your computer is under warranty, take it to Apple and have them look at it. They will probably replace your optical drive, and for free.

There's nothing wrong with the drive. The problem occurs on a few discs only.

 

[Spikestrip]

There's nothing wrong with the drive. The problem occurs on a few discs only.

Well, the problem is either your drive, the discs, or some software issue. If you can boot the machine up from another drive or OS than you can find out whether or not it is software. Once you find out that it is hardware, you need to narrow down the drive or the discs. If the discs work absolutely everywhere else without fail except your iMac, you have a pretty definitive answer.

Purchased a refurb iMac 27" about a month ago, it's my first Mac and I'm thrilled with it.

I've come across an issue reading some old CDs I had lying around. They all contain photos or movie files and were created with the PC I replaced with the mac.

I can read any other media with the mac (DVDs, CDs) but there are a handful of these CDs that when installed, will not read or be recognized by the optical drive and will just spin. Of course they then won't eject either .. fortunately I came across an article that had several tricks for removing stuck media. After trying terminal prompt commands and several other tricks, I booted while holding Option down and then was able to eject from boot screen.

The only thing I can think of is that I may not have closed out the session after copying the files from the PC. Could that cause the Mac drive to hang up ? I'm happy to blame the media and not the drive, but annoying that there is not a hardware override to eject the disk, rather than doing a forced shut down and restart.

Thanks for any advice.

You should not need to force anything. Shut the computer down, and as it is booting, hold down the mouse clicker or the spacebar. This will eject the disc without any force quitting or anything else unnecessary.

 

[Blue26]

Thanks for the replies.

To be clear, when I insert one of these CDs that is not working the machine will not respond to shut down ... it just stays there with the drive spinning (I waited 10 min.)

The OS isn't locked, I can run other applications, it just won't shut down, so I have to hold the power button until it turnes off ... then can boot up and eject the disk.

Think I'll talk to Apple and have it checked out.

TY

 

[Spikestrip]

Thanks for the replies.

To be clear, when I insert one of these CDs that is not working the machine will not respond to shut down ... it just stays there with the drive spinning (I waited 10 min.)

The OS isn't locked, I can run other applications, it just won't shut down, so I have to hold the power button until it turnes off ... then can boot up and eject the disk.

Think I'll talk to Apple and have it checked out.

TY

I would personally be surprised to find out it was software, but it definitely could be the discs. I've seen that exact behavior turn into an optical drive replacement, and I've also seen it turn out to be the media.