external dvd burner

[clarky]

Why is external burner not recognised on startup? I have to turn power off and on or unplug usb and plug in again to have it recognised. Is this normal or is there something I need to do? Had same problem with a firewire burner.

 

[cwa107]

I have an external (USB) that is recognized without having to unplug. Might just be an eccentricity of your machine or drive. Tell us a little bit more about your Mac, version of OS X and make/model of external drive.

 

[clarky]

Hi, I have a G4 Dual 800mhz running osx 10.4.11. The burner is in Cypress AT2LP RC7 enclosure and is a Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200A. My firewire unit (Lacie enclosure) did the same thing can't think what brand the drive is

 

[cwa107]

Hi, I have a G4 Dual 800mhz running osx 10.4.11. The burner is in Cypress AT2LP RC7 enclosure and is a Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200A. My firewire unit (Lacie enclosure) did the same thing can't think what brand the drive is

Gotcha. Our two machines are pretty different beasts as I'm really only familiar with the newer Intel machines. Still, I really don't think that's normal. Any chance you have a friend of an acquaintance with an external DVD that you can borrow? It would help to isolate it to the machine itself or the drive.

 

[clarky]

Thanks for the response. No I don't know anyone with an external burner, I have 2 external hard drives connected and they are fine. I actually got this usb one to replace the firewire one hoping to fix the problem. As I have the inbuilt burner and don't often need the 2 I guess I can put up with the messing around. But like you said it doesn't seem right so maybe someone out there could have the answer.

 

[chscag]

External optical drives are not recognized when you plug them in unless you have a disk inside. This is normal. I have several different drives and that's the way they act.

If you plug the drive in and then put in a disk, it (the disk) should be displayed on your desktop. The same will occur when burning to a blank disk. When you put the blank in the drive, it should be recognized by the software.

BTW, Windows does not act the same way. External drives, even when empty, will show up when plugged in.

 

[clarky]

Hi chscag, Thanks for that will put a disc in before I boot next time, though unless you misunderstood, it is recognised without a disc in if I unplug and plug once computer is on.