12-11-2009, 11:52 AM

Got my imac about a week ago. We were really excited, as everything seems really slick.

Then, last night, I went through what I would describe as evil reincarnate as I tried to upload some of my archived files from DVDs and CDs.

First, transferring files with the so called superdrive was painfully slow. About 10-15 minutes to transfer a full CD of pictures (CD, not DVD, so, what about 600-750 MB?) Can't wait till I transfer DVDs of data

Next, some of my disks were a little older, admittedly (circa 2000-2002). Insert into imac. Nothing but furious spinning and whirring. No icon added on the desktop, nothing. Ok, hit eject. Nothing. Hmm. Open disk utility, wait for the 2 minutes it takes to admit there's a disk in the drive, hit eject. Nothing (well, actually, note saying "error can't eject").

What next. Ok, hit restart. Starts to shutdown fine, goes to blue screen, freezes. Won't shutdown. So I try hitting power button for a few seconds (i've later learned that I probably want to hold it for 10+ seconds). Still nothing.

Fine. How do you like this, Imac: I pulled her cord. Upon plugging in and turning on, the disk finally ejects.

Most disks worked, but this was frustrating because every third or fourth disk of data (and sometimes two in a row) would do this. I went downstairs to my laptop (running XP) and put them in, recognized and read right away.

I thought the whole point of switching was that random, horribly frustrating things weren't supposed to happen (like whenever my wife is working on our family christmas card from a template in notes, it crashes randomly. Nice.)

12-11-2009, 12:49 PM

If its crashing randomly like that I would have to believe that something my have happened in shipping or its defective.

how did the transfer rate of the XP machine compare to the iMac?

which iMac is it? Did you buy it brand new?

12-11-2009, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by johnnyFIVE

If its crashing randomly like that I would have to believe that something my have happened in shipping or its defective.

how did the transfer rate of the XP machine compare to the iMac?

which iMac is it? Did you buy it brand new?

It's the iMac listed under "Mac specs:" to the left under my name.

It is brand new, and have not had other issues. And upon further reflection, I'm thinking the slow transfers might have been DVDs....I had about 15 cds/dvds to upload, so lost track. Anyway, that doesn't change what happened to those CDs (which were definitely CDs) I mentioned.

Those are very particular things to get damaged during shipping, but who knows. And, yeah, may be defective, so I'll monitor what else happens.

But my biggest lament is what I mentioned in my first point: Isn't this precisely the kind of frustration that apple attributes to Win machines as a way to get us to switch. So I switch and I have buggy, frustrating things going on? Just aggravating.

12-11-2009, 01:05 PM

haha I didnt even think to check the specs, lol, stupid.

For sure it would be. Im wondering why it wouldnt read the discs, are they scratched at all or anything? what format are they in? I wouldnt think it should matter for pictures though.... unless you formatted the CD or something before putting the pictures on. But I would still think it would read the disc.

no answers and more questions! ...sorry I cant be of more help. I havent experienced any of these issues before and thats typically the only way I know about what to do..

12-11-2009, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by johnnyFIVE

For sure it would be. Im wondering why it wouldnt read the discs, are they scratched at all or anything? what format are they in? I wouldnt think it should matter for pictures though.... unless you formatted the CD or something before putting the pictures on. But I would still think it would read the disc.

The disks I think were a different file system. I noticed on my laptop it said something like "UDF" for one or two of them, and the other one or two had a 4 character string with "CD in it. xxcd or cdxx, something like that. While I did notice that some that worked in imac said fat32, I think.

Sorry, I'm not home right now, so I'm just trying to recall what they said, and this was at 1am last night (was trying to get to bed by 11, after starting this well before 9).

But, when I noticed that, I recall now thinking Hmmm, wonder if imac can't read certain file systems, but if that's the case, I wish it would just spit the disk back out rather than have a conniption fit.

Oh, and, yes, some of the disks had wear, but my laptop read them w/o problem, and mac pulled a Palin on me (went rogue--haha, did I just make that up?)

12-11-2009, 01:29 PM

"It just works" is a great marketing idea.

It's a computer. Poop happens. It may happen less than when using Windows or it may happen more. It totally depends on what you're doing and how you're using it.

I mean, if Apple computers were totally infallible there wouldn't be such things as warranties, support forums, etc... Nothing is perfect. That's about what it boils down to.

PS. That's why non mechanical ejecting can suck.

12-11-2009, 01:33 PM

It is brand new, and have not had other issues. And upon further reflection, I'm thinking the slow transfers might have been DVDs....I had about 15 cds/dvds to upload, so lost track. Anyway, that doesn't change what happened to those CDs (which were definitely CDs) I mentioned.

Those are very particular things to get damaged during shipping, but who knows. And, yeah, may be defective, so I'll monitor what else happens.

But my biggest lament is what I mentioned in my first point: Isn't this precisely the kind of frustration that apple attributes to Win machines as a way to get us to switch. So I switch and I have buggy, frustrating things going on? Just aggravating.

First, sorry to hear of your difficulties.

The CDs and DVDs that were transferring slowly - how were they recorded? I ask because if they were first formatted with a program like Roxio that would explain the slow transfer. I have routinely transferred data off CDs and DVDs that I recorded with a Windows machine back in 2000, 2001, and the transfer was normal. I have even transferred DVD data that was recorded in multi-session without problems.

As far as your frustrations... All I can tell you is that this forum has posts from literally hundreds (perhaps more) of happy switchers whose experience does not reflect yours. I include myself as one who permanently switched to the Mac platform several years ago. Although I still use Windows and have Windows machines, I would never go back.

Stick with it and stay tuned in. The folks in this forum are always ready to assist. And if there is something that's not working right with your new iMac, the folks at Apple are the best when it comes to tech support and repair.

Regards.

12-11-2009, 01:36 PM

Unfortunately, slot-loading drives tend to be slow in my experience. When I need to do intensive disc operations, I attach an external optical drive that has a real tray.

Also, keep in mind that optical discs degrade over time.

12-11-2009, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

First, sorry to hear of your difficulties.

The CDs and DVDs that were transferring slowly - how were they recorded? I ask because if they were first formatted with a program like Roxio that would explain the slow transfer.

Stick with it and stay tuned in. The folks in this forum are always ready to assist. And if there is something that's not working right with your new iMac, the folks at Apple are the best when it comes to tech support and repair.

Regards.

Roxio sounds familiar, so probably that. Good to know.

And I will stick with it. Thanks for responding. Overall, despite these issues, there are plenty more positive things I have to say...again, just frustrating and ironic considering Mac's campaign for switchers.

Originally Posted by cwa107

Unfortunately, slot-loading drives tend to be slow in my experience. When I need to do intensive disc operations, I attach an external optical drive that has a real tray.

Also, keep in mind that optical discs degrade over time.

That's too bad about the slot loading disks. It makes perfect sense, but I'm not going to get an external....However, I do see it as a problem that a bad/degraded/wrong file system/dirty/whatever ails-ya disk gets hung up like that in this drive. Quite frankly, I think that's an issue and Mac should just make it eject without such hassle.

With regard to the degradation, that also makes sense, but isn't 6-8 years still within the window, and why didn't the pc have any issues whatsoever reading it?

Thanks again for the responses, I'm learning with each one.

12-11-2009, 03:53 PM

I've noticed funny stuff going on on my new mini as well with CD's.

I was looking for a folder I was sure was on a cd and while it was in the mac, it would read the cd but I couldn't find the folder ... they were folders but not the video folder I was looking for.

I put the disk in a linux box and all folders were there, including that one ...

Hmmm

12-11-2009, 04:18 PM

I've found that the slot-loading drive is slow too. I had never burned a DVD until I got the imac so I have nothing to compare it to however.

There has been twice when, after loading the disk in, it didnt show up on the desktop or in Finder

One time I pressed the eject button on the keyboard and it popped out and then when I put it back in everything was fine.

The other time I had to go to Terminal mode and type in "drutil tray eject". It popped out but I had my fingers crossed.

At least a pin-hole eject would be nice.

That sucks big-time that it isnt reading your old disks

12-11-2009, 05:04 PM

"As intended, initially UDF operated mainly on optical media. Most operating systems needed special third-party software to support reading it. Nowadays, almost all operating systems natively support at least reading UDF file systems, and many support some form of writing as well. "

That quote might explain part of the problem. I tried this for a while when it was first introduced because I wanted to use CDRWs and preferably with both Mac and PC. I abandoned the idea because the data did not seem stable. Most of the software I used, including Roxio stuff if I recall, needed a system extension to read/write the files on the Mac. Come back a few weeks later and the data might not be readable. Not sure why that was happening.

I began to wonder if the standard wasn't in flux a bit with different manufacturers using slight different implementations. If that was happening it might explain why the current OS, most now support this natively, are having a problem. Universal Disk Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

12-11-2009, 07:34 PM

I'd have to agree with the UDF flux thing when it comes to older CD's. I have hundreds if not thousands of CDs that I burned as far back as the late '90s that, IIRC gave the Mac that I had at the time fits just as described. Worked fine on a Windows box, but the Mac wouldn't cope with them. I just wrote off the data on those CD's (gotta let go of the past sometime, though photos kind of need to have longevity.) Don't blame the Mac, blame the companies going through format wars at the time before settling down on a standard so we can now archive things more reliably today.

Data rot has been an issue since we stored stuff on punched cards, paper tape, magtape and you name a format. Not Apple's fault. I'm just glad for the media I still CAN read whether it be on Mac/PC/IBM3090 with 3350 DASD (that last one is a circa '80s mainframe that probably still powers some of NASA's stuff today.)

12-11-2009, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by droflex

At least a pin-hole eject would be nice.

Yes! It seems like a serious oversight (I'm sure it isn't, and they pro/con-ed the heck out of it, but still...would have been nice last night!)

Originally Posted by yamawho

I've noticed funny stuff going on on my new mini as well with CD's.

I was looking for a folder I was sure was on a cd and while it was in the mac, it would read the cd but I couldn't find the folder ... they were folders but not the video folder I was looking for.

I put the disk in a linux box and all folders were there, including that one ...

Hmmm

Actually, your post just reminded me...on 2 other cds, it "couldn't complete the copy because of some error"-type message, and only a few files transferred. I had to individually click each file on the cd folder, it spun and angrily-whirred, and the image would show up...go through the whole CD manually like that, and now all of a sudden I can copy the file. WTF?

Originally Posted by walkerj

Don't blame the Mac, blame the companies going through format wars at the time before settling down on a standard so we can now archive things more reliably today.

Data rot has been an issue since we stored stuff on punched cards, paper tape, magtape and you name a format. Not Apple's fault.

I don't blame the Mac for the data rot issue (and all of this has been very illuminating, by the way).

However, I do blame the Mac a bit for not just ejecting the disc, or saying "cannot read disc" or something to that effect...doing what it did seems the least appropriate response (well, other than actual damage to my machine or data, of course).

12-12-2009, 03:49 AM

Welcome to the world of Apple :-) As someone said - it's just a computer, but their design gurus seem to emphasise prettiness at the expense of functionality so far as the hardware is concerned. That's why there's no mechanical release for the dvd, why the new keyboard is too tiny and why the Mighty Mouse was such a wimp.

But, hej - what wins me over from the PCs I used since about 1985 until earlier this year is that software works on the Mac - the only program I have that occasionally fails is - guess what - Msoft Office for the Mac :-) The interoperability of Apple's own products is great and some things (like the stuff you can do with iMovie, for example - even with still photos) is awesome (and I rarely use the word).

So - stick with it - things will settle down as you become more familiar with it and soon you'll be a (moderately) happy bunny!