03-25-2005, 12:18 PM

A long time ago I burnt Mp3s onto CDs from my Dell computer. Now my new apple imac won't read the disks! What gives!? its only mp3 format.

03-25-2005, 01:11 PM

you might have burnt them in the NTFS file format which is windows only.

03-25-2005, 01:30 PM

How long ago?

Check here.

03-25-2005, 02:18 PM

Yes, I remember reading about that. It's great isn't it, they market compact disks as indestructible and now you can buy ones that last a year, disposable CD's, great !!!. :bomb:

03-26-2005, 04:41 AM

Originally Posted by fearlessfreap24

you might have burnt them in the NTFS file format which is windows only.

NTFS is only for harddisks...you can't burn a CD (or DVD) in NTFS format.

03-26-2005, 12:24 PM

and a mac will read NTFS it just can't write to it. Did you burn it as an mp3 cd or a data cd with mp3s on it?

03-26-2005, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by Blue_Dawg

and a mac will read NTFS it just can't write to it. Did you burn it as an mp3 cd or a data cd with mp3s on it?

Actually i think you will find that is either a music cd (one that will play in a music player) or a data cd (one that has mp3 files and requires an mp3 player) and can be read by a computer.

As for writing to ntfs, i transfer files from my G5 to my amd pc all the time that is running Xp with ntfs...

What it could be is the drive that wrote the original disk isn't all that compatable with other drives. I have a cd of mp3's that 4 different computers won't read at all, yet my friends old old computer reads just fine. Try it on as many different drives as you can, one may read it, if so then do a copy of it and maybe your new drive will read the copy.

03-26-2005, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by James

As for writing to ntfs, i transfer files from my G5 to my amd pc all the time that is running Xp with ntfs...

A little off topic, but without any additional software, OS X (or any other OS except Win2k/XP) until now (ver. 10.3.8) is not able to write on a NTFS partition. Reading is no problem, but writing is not possible. So you must have a FAT32 partition on which your Mac writes data.

03-26-2005, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by James

As for writing to ntfs, i transfer files from my G5 to my amd pc all the time that is running Xp with ntfs...

Originally Posted by Avalon

A little off topic, but without any additional software, OS X (or any other OS except Win2k/XP) until now (ver. 10.3.8) is not able to write on a NTFS partition. Reading is no problem, but writing is not possible. So you must have a FAT32 partition on which your Mac writes data.

Based upon the description he is not mounting or writing to an NTFS volume. He is connecting to an SMB share on a Windows machine. So the Mac is communicating with Windows using SMB then Windows is saving the data to NTFS. The Mac is not reading and writing from the NTFS volume.
Now if you are using an external drive formatted in NTFS and can connect in read/write mode that is something different and not possible as far as I know with stock OS X.

03-26-2005, 05:09 PM

An MP3 CD will only appear in iTunes' Source list if it was created with iTunes. MP3 CDs created with another application or device will not appear in the Source list, but will appear on the desktop as a data disc (From an Apple tech note).
In other words you'll need some other software like Toast or some other application that can play MP3 CDs. You might try www.macupdate.com, www.versiontracker or www.pure-mac.com to find something. Also, you might be able to copy the tracks to the hard disk and then import them into iTunes. Since iTunes is ignoring the CD copying the tracks to the HD might make them accessible.

03-26-2005, 05:52 PM

you could highlight all of the mp3 files on the data disk in the finder window and execute them, it will force iTunes to put them in to the library. i have had to do that before. it works but it is not efficient.

03-26-2005, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Avalon

A little off topic, but without any additional software, OS X (or any other OS except Win2k/XP) until now (ver. 10.3.8) is not able to write on a NTFS partition. Reading is no problem, but writing is not possible. So you must have a FAT32 partition on which your Mac writes data.

Well maybe i am not actually writing to ntfs under the strictest interpatation, but when i click on network in finder and it brings up my drive D on the pc and i can move a file from the Mac to that drive, i call that writing to it just like i do when i move a file to the wifes iMac, am i not writing to the iMac too. And drive D on the pc is definatly an ntfs drive, in fact all drives on the pc are ntfs.

03-26-2005, 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by Kokopelli

Based upon the description he is not mounting or writing to an NTFS volume. He is connecting to an SMB share on a Windows machine. So the Mac is communicating with Windows using SMB then Windows is saving the data to NTFS. The Mac is not reading and writing from the NTFS volume.
Now if you are using an external drive formatted in NTFS and can connect in read/write mode that is something different and not possible as far as I know with stock OS X.

Ok i admit to being a computer idiot, but if i can sit at my Mac and transfer files to the wife's Mac and read and send files to my pc, delete files and all how is that not reading and writing? Sounds like a case of semantics to me for in real life the files i send get writen to the ntfs hard drive, and files i tell it to delete get deleted. What your saying then is i don't actually physically write the files to the drive, i just send the information and the windows machine does the actual writing, is this correct?

I never said anything about an external ntfs drive, my pc has two internal hard drives both ntfs formated and accessable by both my pm g5 and the wifes iMac g5 through a lan and all three share internet through a router. I do have an external drive that is used by both Mac and pc and it is fat32.

03-26-2005, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by fearlessfreap24

you could highlight all of the mp3 files on the data disk in the finder window and execute them, it will force iTunes to put them in to the library. i have had to do that before. it works but it is not efficient.

You can also point iTunes at the cd and tell it to "add to library" on the "file" menu, but of course you have to have the cd in the drive later if you want to hear those songs unless you have it write the data to the hard drive. Dogone iTunes does one heck of a job don't it...

03-26-2005, 06:40 PM

When you are reading and writing to a a network attached PC you are not reading or writing NTFS. You are reading/writing via an smb mount.

If you physically attached the hard disk that was formatted NTFS you would be able to read but not write.

As for the CD not being read, I have had issues in the past with disks not working after a year. These were Name brand CD's as well. I don't know if they have changed the quality of Blank CD's over the years, but I now have MP3 CD's over 2 years old in my car which is not the most safest environment for CD's -20 below Celsius in the winter. These were those 100 pack of blanks too.