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External Optical Drive Will Not Mount Blank Disk

ajmichmac

ajmichmac

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 7, 2018
87
11
N.E. Michigan
iMac Pro 2017, using latest Mojave... this glitch just appeared. When a blank/empty CD or DVD is inserted in my external Pioneer BDR-XD05B, the drive spins up but Mojave does not mount it. It had been working fine and nothing was changed, IE, this bug came out of nowhere. I have tried to mount the disk in Disk Utility but the option is grayed out/unavailable. The system "sees" the drive in that there is an entry in Disk Utility, but nothing can be done with it there. Multiple disks have been tried, and the burner's cable has been tried using different sockets, to no avail. The mac has been examined recently by Apple and found to be in perfect operating order with their proprietary diagnostics. Have scoured the forums but nothing works. Note that the burner works normally when plugged into a Windows box. WTF, is this a Mojave bug?
 
I have noticed the same Mojave bug. I do not have a definite fix or workaround. I try to eject the media and reinsert the media and sometimes the Mac "sees" it. Sometimes it works to unplug the drive while the media in in the drive and then plug the drive into the Mac again. I have tried to restart the Mac with the drive connected and the media already inside the drive. Usually something works eventually and the Mac mounts the media. I use a ASUS external Blu-ray. My Apple external superdrive does not seem to have this problem so far.
 
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What happens if you use a disc burning app?
There used to be a couple of free ones for the Mac:
- Burn
- Simply Burns

It might be worth searching for/downloading them, and then see if they can recognize/access the external drive.

EDIT:
I booted from my "Mojave test SSD" (which is formatted in HFS+, I don't know whether this makes a difference or not).
I was able to download both "Simply Burns" and "Burn", and open both of them.
They "recognize the presence" of my external 3rd party BD/DVD/CD burner (a Samsung USB).
I didn't try actually burning or mounting any discs, however.
But I suggest that the OP try one or both of these free apps.
 
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I ran into this problem a few weeks ago during my first attempt to burn a disc with Mojave. It seems to be a bug in Mojave (maybe nobody at Apple has an optical drive to test disc burning!). I followed another suggestion I found which is to go under File and select "New Burn Folder."
 
ajmichmac said:
iMac Pro 2017, using latest Mojave... this glitch just appeared. When a blank/empty CD or DVD is inserted in my external Pioneer BDR-XD05B, the drive spins up but Mojave does not mount it.
Click to expand...

Blank discs don't mount. They can't. They don't have a filesystem on them. Finder can put them on the desktop so you can drag and drop to them, if it's told to do so.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203336
 
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I'm using an old apple DVD/CD external drive on my mini and just now stuck in Turbotax. It mounted and installed. I also was able to use the same DVD/CD drive to import music from a CD. I wonder if it could be your drive? They do go wonky. Also, old CDs and DVDs can go bad if they were cheap/poorly made. Now that I think about it, when I told iTunes to burn a music CD it worked but I do admit that I don't think it mounted the empty disk.
 
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We just stuck the DVD/CD recorder player on our El Capitan machine and it does indeed mount a drive. Then we put it on my Mojave and it didn't mount but it did prompt to record files on it. With a disk in the drive, I was able to right click on a file (or folder) and got the option to burn to disc.
 

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Thanks to everyone for your input... I have tried several burning apps and they "see" the blank disk, but they ALL hang while trying to burn to it. That includes iTunes, Burn, Simply Burns, Toast, etc. The drive will PLAY a CD. FWIW I've contacted Pioneer in case the drive is whack. Further, I just tried burning via iTunes and it ejects the blank CD, then asks for a blank CD even though the disk in the drive was blank.
 
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Follow-up after talking with Apple support: The issue is a known bug and a solution is being sought by their engineers. So.... since my drive used to work normally (and still does on a Windows PC), apparently the mac software (Mojave 10.14.2) is the culprit. Was only able to get a disk to burn using Finder, selecting 11 wav files (music), then burning -- it is PAINFULLY slow though... maybe 2x speed instead of the 24x that the drive is capable of. AND that burning method results in wav files on the CD instead of standard music files. A senior advisor/tech said my case will be added to other, similar cases for review, and that she would get back to me next week.
 
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OP:

Does the Pioneer burner that you're using have an input for an EXTERNAL power supply block?
If so, have you tried connecting it?

If you're running the drive solely from USB power, perhaps the Mac ins't supplying enough "bus power" to get the job done.

EDIT:
The post BELOW this one makes a good point about USB hubs.
If you have the drive connected "through a hub", try connecting it directly to the port on the Mac instead.
 
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Fishrrman said:
OP:

Does the Pioneer burner that you're using have an input for an EXTERNAL power supply block?
If so, have you tried connecting it?

If you're running the drive solely from USB power, perhaps the Mac ins't supplying enough "bus power" to get the job done.
Click to expand...
That’s true. I tried to plug my Apple external DVD/CD into my usb powered hub and it complained that it had to be plugged directly into the mac. I then plugged it into the port closest to the edge of the back of the mini and it worked.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

Does the Pioneer burner that you're using have an input for an EXTERNAL power supply block? If so, have you tried connecting it? If you're running the drive solely from USB power, perhaps the Mac ins't supplying enough "bus power" to get the job done./QUOTE]

Yes, it does have a power socket but I'll have to look for a suitable block... seems unlikely that an iMac Pro would have insufficient bus power though...? Anyway I've tried the burner directly connected to the back of the mac and it does the same thing... ,AND, it used to burn OK! I haven't changed anything since it did work, except add some apps.
Click to expand...
 
OP:
Another thought:
Could you try rebooting in safe mode, and see if that changes anything?
(to boot in safe mode, reboot and hold down the shift key continuously)
 
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Fishrrman said:
OP:
Another thought:
Could you try rebooting in safe mode, and see if that changes anything?
(to boot in safe mode, reboot and hold down the shift key continuously)
Click to expand...
Thanks... tried safe mode, but the problem is the same, the disc won't mount and the recording software, Burn v2.5.1, froze while attempting to start recording some audio files. I guess there is no workaround and this will have to wait until Apple issues an OS update or fix......?
 
OP wrote:
"I guess there is no workaround and this will have to wait until Apple issues an OS update or fix......?"

Frankly, at this point -- having tried almost everything -- I reckon that your only realistic option is to try A REPLACEMENT DVD/CD burner.
 
Fishrrman said:
Frankly, at this point -- having tried almost everything -- I reckon that your only realistic option is to try A REPLACEMENT DVD/CD burner.
Click to expand...

Can anyone recommend a proven burner for Mojave? The thing is, the Pioneer burner works fine on a Windows box. So I'd assume the problem has something to do with the mac drivers? Is the Apple "Lightning" burner worth the extra outlay?
 
ajmichmac said:
Can anyone recommend a proven burner for Mojave? The thing is, the Pioneer burner works fine on a Windows box. So I'd assume the problem has something to do with the mac drivers? Is the Apple "Lightning" burner worth the extra outlay?
Click to expand...
Do they still sell the Apple external? Because we have 2 of them and they work just fine on my new 2018 mini along with our 2013 iMac.

Nevermind, I see they still sell them for $79. Ours is NOT a lightning but regular USB that I plugged into the back of the Mac mini.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD564LL/A/apple-usb-superdrive
 
I haven't found an AC adaptor for the Pioneer burner yet, but I did switch the USB plugs from a hub directly to the back of the iMac Pro.... and it works now. Evidently you are right, it wasn't drawing enough power via the hub. I don't trust the burn, though, as the audio CD I made as a test contains a few bloops IE at the start of a song, it will blip slightly. Burning a DVD-ROM right now and it appears to be writing at a good clip. Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions.:D
 
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garr. recently upgraded to Mojave on 2009 MacPro (otherwise upgraded). CD/DVD player/writer doesn't seem to work at all. DVD not mounted or recognized in disk util.
 
Was this problem ever fixed? I bought a few hard to get CDs from Japan and want to rip and preserve them but cannot get any response from 3 different USB external drives.
Even the official Apple one won't work.
 
That's odd. When plugged directly into the USB A port on my Mini I hear the *click* from all the drives that they're engaged but when I insert a disc it just spins but does not mount any CD.
Disk Utility doesn't bring it up either and System Report shows the drives in the USB tree.
 
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