DVD won't mount on desktop

[CLOD-HOPPER]

Hi, wizards, I am using a mid-2010 iMac, and running High Sierra 10.13.6. Recently, using Titanium Toast, I burned about 8 copies of a video that I had made (a copy each, for various relatives). I tested one of the resulting videos (the copy that I intended to keep for my own use) on our DVD recorder/television, and it played fine. Today, another relative asked me for a copy, and, being willing to oblige, I said I would make her one from my own copy, using Titanium Toast, but this time, I should need to set Toast to do a Disc Copy, since, by now, the digital master-video had been destroyed.

When I pushed my copy of the DVD into the slot at the side of my iMac, it would not mount. Instead, it just kept spitting the disc out. I tried starting up in Safe Mode, but this made no difference. Then, I put another disc that had been burned by me, months ago, and this would not mount either. However, it was not spat out by the Mac. It could be seen in the window of Disk Utiilty, but D.U. said that it was "not mounted". I click the button, in D.U., that said "Mount", repeatedly, but it did not mount. So, I re-started the Mac, and it mounted on the desktop.

Now, it was the time to see whether my original disc would mount. No, it would not! It just kept being spat out, as before.

So, my question, if anyone can answer it, is this: is the built-in DVD drive on the way to failing completely, or is there something else that can be done to make my required DVD mount? The fact that, at long last, it did finally recognise the second DVD shows that there is nothing wrong with the lens, surely.

Thanks in advance, for any helpful replies.
C.H.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Slot loaders were always in danger of going to superdrive heaven. At nine years you have had a pretty good run. Head over to ifixit.com for tear downs and replacements. For a 27" model:-


https://jp.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2390+Optical+Drive+Replacement/8918?lang=en

 

[CLOD-HOPPER]

Slot loaders were always in danger of going to superdrive heaven. At nine years you have had a pretty good run.

Yes, I suppose that what you say is correct, and thanks for your advice. However, my slot-loader has had relatively VERY little use. And, after my posting, when I burned yet another DVD, and it worked OK, also mounted immediately on the desktop after being ejected by me, I thought that there cannot be anything much that is wrong with the built-in DVD drive. It now seems to be more a question of: what is wrong with the problem DVD video that I burned, that will not mount? Later, I put it into my DVD recorder, and played it on the television, so it cannot be damaged. Why would a single, unscratched, clean DVD not be recognised?
C.H.

 

[Fishrrman]

My guess is that your internal DVD drive is getting flaky.
Apple DVDs have a bad rep for doing this.

$25 solution:
Buy a 3rd-party external USB DVD/CD burner.
I suggest you get a "tray loader" rather than a "slot loader".
Yes, it's a little extra effort to lift the cover, and insert the DVD/CD.
But that design just seems to last longer.

You're going to need it when you "move up" to your next Mac, anyway.

 

[CLOD-HOPPER]

My guess is that your internal DVD drive is getting flaky.

Hmm, you could be right in saying that, Fishrrman. However, before buying an external drive, I shall wait, and see how things go. With the current history, if something goes wrong again, I should be more inclined to buy a new drive. Here in the UK, external read/write drives for DVDs/CDs seem to be more expensive than you say. I bought one for my son, about two years ago, and it cost 90 pounds sterling. I think that was quite a bit more than 25 dollars. However, I would look around carefully before buying. Perhaps I paid more than I need have done. Thanks for your input.
C.H.

 

[MSastre]

Today, another relative asked me for a copy, and, being willing to oblige, I said I would make her one from my own copy, using Titanium Toast, but this time, I should need to set Toast to do a Disc Copy, since, by now, the digital master-video had been destroyed.

i suggest when you make your next movie for DVD, that you save it as a disk image, that way you can make multiple copies at any time from that image. I've been using Toast for ages and always make DVDs from a disk image, rather than copying. Much simpler.
Check Amazon or OWC for an external usb DVD drive. I linked usb 2 drives because of your iMac's age, but usb 3.0 should be backwards compatible.

 

[NoBoMac]

Will echo Apple SuperDrives being flaky. The drive in my MBP has always been flaky with DVDs. Doesn't recognize a blank disc, won't read newly burned, but other times, all ok with disc burned o said drive. CDs, never an issue.

I gave up on burning DVDs years ago. Flaky combined with amount of data I've accumulated, easier to use external drives, incremental cloud copies.

 

[CLOD-HOPPER]

i suggest when you make your next movie for DVD, that you save it as a disk image, that way you can make multiple copies at any time from that image. I've been using Toast for ages and always make DVDs from a disk image, rather than copying. Much simpler.
Check Amazon or OWC for an external usb DVD drive. I linked usb 2 drives because of your iMac's age, but usb 3.0 should be backwards compatible.

Thanks for both tips, MSastre!
C.H.

 

[CLOD-HOPPER]

i suggest when you make your next movie for DVD, that you save it as a disk image, that way you can make multiple copies at any time from that image. I've been using Toast for ages and always make DVDs from a disk image, rather than copying. Much simpler.
Check Amazon or OWC for an external usb DVD drive. I linked usb 2 drives because of your iMac's age, but usb 3.0 should be backwards compatible.

MSastre, I took your advice, and bought an external DVD/CD drive. At the price, it seemed to be silly not to! So, that seems to insure against drive failure. I also tried making a disc image, in Titanium Toast, of an existing QuickTime movie of mine (I did not know that this could be done). The disc image was produced, but, when I double-clicked it, two folders appeared. One was the Video_TS and the other was an Audio_TS. I didn't know what to do with these, so I tried dragging the Video_TS to the window of Toast (having set it to Video). After doing this, I also tried to drag in the Audio_TS, but the window would not accept it. If a DVD had then been burned, would the sound have been lost? If so, how would one insert the sound file into the resulting DVD? Anyway, after dragging the Video_TS over into Toast, a window opened, which showed the actual, moving images of the video in question. Am I correct in thinking that, if I had wished to clip unwanted material out of this video, in the window that opened, that that would have been possible? Then, would it also have been possible to burn a DVD disc, via Toast, of that edited video? How would this be done? In matters like this, I am very inexperienced, so please bear with my seeming stupidity. Thanks for your patience.
C.H.

 

[MSastre]

I don't know which version of Toast Titanium you have, but check your different options, as you can burn from either a disk image or a Video_TS folder, depending what burn options you select. You can also control the burn speed (lower is better with DVDs). Don't worry about the Audio_TS folder, just drag the Video_TS folder into the Toast window to burn your DVD, the audio will be there. I have not tried editing out parts of the DVD with the different files inside the Video_TS folder, but you can experiment if you want to. I usually create disk images in my editing program (FCP X) or in Disk Utility and have the movie completely edited before going to DVD.

 

[CLOD-HOPPER]

I don't know which version of Toast Titanium you have, but check your different options, as you can burn from either a disk image or a Video_TS folder, depending what burn options you select. You can also control the burn speed (lower is better with DVDs). Don't worry about the Audio_TS folder, just drag the Video_TS folder into the Toast window to burn your DVD, the audio will be there. I have not tried editing out parts of the DVD with the different files inside the Video_TS folder, but you can experiment if you want to. I usually create disk images in my editing program (FCP X) or in Disk Utility and have the movie completely edited before going to DVD.

Hey, MSastre, that's tremendously helpful of you! Since you raise the question, my version of Toast is 11.2. It does all that I need to to (and probably more than I know it can do). I shall certainly experiment with cropping videos. It's very good to learn, even if it can be difficult. Thanks — very much — for your information.
C.H.

 

[MSastre]

Toast 11.2 is fine. Only get the "latest and greatest" version if it has features you need. I still use Toast 10 on one machine and Toast 15 on another.