Won't mount empty DVD-Rs on the Finder

guilly

guilly

Too handsome to use a PC
Yes. I've got Mac OS X.2.whateverlastversionis...

I recently bought IOmega Super DVD, which is a USB 2.0 external DVD burner which supports multiple format media (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RAM).

So far, the drive is properly detected by my G3 with USB 1.1 ports. I can view CDs and DVDs with no trouble at all. IOmega does not offer support for Macintosh users and this drive does not bring any software nor drivers for use with a Mac.

Yet, Mac OS X seems to handle it pretty well, and I assume as well that an USB Storage Device works by standards, so I believe it should be 100% compatible as all USB external storage devices are.

Nevertheless, when I insert a DVD-R disc (I only tried it with DVD-R format), Mac OS X detects that I have inserted an empty recordable DVD and prompts me for action: mount it in the finder, open it with diskcopy, etc...

Of course, diskcopy is of no use if what I want is to burn data onto it. The system tells me that it cannot mount this disk in the finder, so it does (not).

My Toast version does not detect the existance of my DVD drive (I use Toast Titanium 5.2.1), so it is of no use as well.

I wounder if the problem could come from any of these facts:

- I have only 1 GB free on my HD??
- Im using USB 1.1 (though it works on my PC with the same USB 1.1)??
- It is defenitely NOT compatible with Macs??
- Mac OS X.2 cannot mount de facto DVD-Rs in the finder??
- ... (( yours goes here ))

Thank you very much for your generous participation. ;)
 
The problem may very well be that you only have 1GB free space on your hard drive.

When you insert a blank CD-R/CD-RW or a DVD-R/DVD-RW and start copying files to it, the system is actually copying those files to a hidden directory on your hard drive. When you eject the CD/DVD, that's when the actual burn is performed and the files in that hidden directory are burned to the media and then deleted. Since DVD-Rs support something like 4.7GB of data, you'd need at least 4.7GB free on your drive -- and I'm assuming you'd need the maximum space available on your drive that's available on the DVD or CD. In other words, even though you intend to only copy 200MB to the DVD, you'd still need 4.7GB free in order for the system to be happy.

What happens if you try the same thing with a CD? Since a CD holds a maximum of 700MB, I don't think your system would complain about that since its less than what you have available.
 
I am confused about another fact. You are using USB 1.1 which is at 11Mbit/sec = theoretically at 1.375mb/sec and practically probably less than 1mb/sec.
When burning DVD at 1x speed (which is the slowest the drive should support) you need 1.385mb/sec. I wonder if this works at all. :(
 
I'd put my money on the lack of HD space on the main drive. As ElDiablo mentioned, everything is first written to hard disk before being burned. You might want to check in the system logs, as it might have a better explanation of why it's not mounting.

Brian
 
I'd echo what Zammy-Sam said, DVD burning, if it will work at all with USB 1.1, will be really! slow (hours or more)
 
Whatever. I returned this drive and bought a LaCie DVD drive. Now I have no trouble at all, since I'm using the firewire port.

Thank you all for your support.
 
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