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MacPro Optical Drive – Won’t read burnt DVD’s
My DVD drive does not seem to be working properly.
I’m running a MacPro from early ’05….the optical drive is a Pioneer DVR-111D.
I don’t think I’ve ever had this problem before, so no bad history to describe….
The drive will not read certain burnt data DVD’s. I was trying to download files from a client that they sent on a burnt DVD, and it won’t read it. After a minute it just ejects it. I tested an authored DVD (official DVD Video), it worked fine. I tested a purchased Adobe data DVD (official DVD-ROM), it worked fine.
It’s reading CD’s fine….burnt or replicates (purchased).
Just yesterday I was able to download data from burnt (purple-backed) DVD’s. But not today.
The only DVD-R’s that it will recognize are blank ones. It recognizes them Just like normal.
I restarted the computer, blew some compressed air into the drive slot, wiped down the discs….still nothing.
I also tried burning some data onto a DVD-R. At the end of the burning process, it gave me an error code, saying that the burnt disc will not be reliable. When I re-entered that disc, it registered as a blank disc.
Any thoughts? Much appreciated.
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7 Replies
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Does the DVD in question work on any other computer, mac or pc? What OS was the DVD burned with?
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Yes, I proceeded with my project by downloading the data to a thumb drive via an old PC laptop. Read fine on that.
The disc was burned on a Mac I believe. Probably Leopard or Tiger. -
It sounds like the drive is going bad unfortunately. SimilarlyI’ve seen a number of drives that read/write CDs but not DVDs.
Best,
Jeff G
Apple Master Trainer
Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
Compressor Essentials Lynda.com -
Hmmm….that’s not good news.
Would it be worth getting one of those laser cleaning kits?
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Because the prices are pretty affordable, perhaps you should consider getting a blue-ray drive from OWC (or somewhere else – OWC just makes great tutorials for how to install based on your version of mac pro). I have the pioneer Blue-ray burner. It’s a convoluted and frustrating process to play BlueRay video (it really doesn’t work yet), but burning data discs is actually pretty easy now – and it burns dvd and cd formats, too.
No sense in throwing good money after bad if a drive is dying.
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Thanks for the tip, John. I think I’ll take your advice.
I’ve never done any hardware upgrading myself. Just took a quick look at some of the drives that OWC offers. Any other tips or features that I should look for? I’m not a high volume burner, so I don’t need much of a work horse. Just need the availability of burning and authoring (and reading of course) from time to time.
Is this type of installation a relatively simple one?
I’ll probably go with Pioneer or LG….and red flags that you know of?
Again, thanks for the tip. I didn’t know that these drives would be so inexpensive!
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I only suggest the SSD for the OS and Applications system drive. They’re smaller, but you shouldn’t be putting media on your OS system drive anyways. You get much faster boot times and app launch times with SSD.
Good luck!
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