Files on CD not showing in Finder

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Hi Folks,

Just got a new modem and all the documentation is on the accompanying CD.
The trouble is, when I load the CD there's no documentation...
...or is there?

When I load the CD on my Windows laptop, there's three folders of goodies - manuals, installers, and numerous files in the root directory.

None of these are visible on my Mac.
In fact, all I get is a folder named "Mac" with installers for older versions of OS X (10.1, 10.2 and 10.3).

On my Windows machine, I can tell it to show all files - hidden and system - how can I do the same on the Mac? Doesn't seem to be anything in System Preferences, or Finder's Preferences.
 

chscag

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Before you bought the modem did you check to see if it was compatible with the version of OS X you're using? If the CD only contains installers for OS X 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3, it may not work with your Mac.
 
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Well, no - but after it was installed, I did browse the "ReadMe.txt" file which let on that from Mac OS X 10.4 onwards, the support was inbuilt into the O/S.

Also, I'm accessing these forums using the modem in question so that can't be a problem.

This is off to one side of my issue though - It's not the modem that's my problem.

I want to know two things:

1. Why do I see different files on the documentation CD when
(a) I view the CD in Finder on my MacBook Pro, and
(b) I view the CD in Windows Explorer on a Compaq laptop ??

and

2. What do I have to do to make all files on the CD visible when I view it on my Mac?

Besides, the CDS doesn't only contain installers for 10.1 through 10.3 - it also contains installers for Windows (as mentioned before, only visible when viewing through Windows Explorer).
 

chscag

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Glad to hear the modem is working. About the CD:

Many dual CDs are setup that way when they contain both a PC version of software and a Mac version. However, I doubt there are hidden Mac files on the CD. What would be the purpose?

Since you would like to check anyway, do this:

Open the Terminal application on your Mac (Applications, Utilities, Terminal.app)
and type the following and then press enter.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Close the Finder and re-launch it. Note that this will turn on hidden files for everything not just the CD you're viewing.

After viewing the CD for hidden files, reverse the command above to get things back to normal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

Shut the Finder down and re-launch.
 
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Thanks chscag,

we may be on the right track.
Your advice *did* make all the invisible files on my hard drive visible (!!)
...but the files on the CD - not so.

I still only get the "Mac" folder showing, and I do get a single hidden file showing; so that shows that Finder is also showing all the files that it can see in the CD directory.

You mistake my purpose though - I'm not looking for hidden Mac files on the CD - I want to see the Windows files on the CD. Why?

Because the Documentation folders are with the Windows files!
There's a 130 page PDF with all of the technical data for the modem!

Now, I have used the Windows machine to get the manual copied from the CD to a flash drive, but now I want to know how I avoid a similar problem in future.

I don't want to keep a Windows laptop solely for the purpose of viewing (what would you call it? a "partition"?) the Windows part of a CD... I want to be able to use my Mac to "see" EVERYTHING that is written on the media that I load on my machine.

I still can't see all the folders and files that are visible when I view the CD on a Windows laptop.
 

chscag

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Thanks for posting back.

Now you have me wondering what format those Windows files are in or how the disk was written? I've several CDs and DVDs that are split with Windows and Mac programs. However, I can read both sides of the disks from my Mac.

The only thing I can think of is if the Windows files on that disk are in an executable format and have to be read from Windows. I've run into that before but the disks were Windows only.
 
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Hi chscag

I've done a little research and the root of the problem is the difference between the Mac file system and the Windows file system and how they read CDs - more correctly, how a CD must be structured in order for the OS to recognise its contents.

The behaviour exhibited by my CD would appear to be deliberate - the manufacturer has burned the CD in a manner that displays a different view of the contents to Mac and Windows users. It's unfortunate that the documentation is only visible to Windows users.
 
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PC CDs Not Being Read by Mountain Lion

I believe there is a bigger problem. I received a CD from a company that had burned some pdf files for me to read and review. My MacBook Pro (2012) tells me it is a blank CD, but if I load Parallels and Windows it sees the files and I can download them to Finder. What is going on and how do I get OS X (10.7.4) to see these files on a CD?
 
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I believe there is a bigger problem. I received a CD from a company that had burned some pdf files for me to read and review. My MacBook Pro (2012) tells me it is a blank CD, but if I load Parallels and Windows it sees the files and I can download them to Finder. What is going on and how do I get OS X (10.7.4) to see these files on a CD?

I'm a new Mac user, and I was dealing with the same problem. I found a solution here:

Mount CD-ROMs as a Windows user would see them - Mac OS X Hints
 
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I found this StackOverflow answer to help:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8780934/how-to-mount-a-specific-file-system-on-a-disk-image

Code:
$ hdiutil attach -nomount path/to/image.iso

/dev/disk3 Apple_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1 Apple_partition_map
/dev/disk3s2 Apple_HFS

$ mkdir /tmp/mountpoint
$ mount -t cd9660 /dev/disk3 /tmp/mountpoint

Note that the output of the 1st command may be different, and also note that using `mount` in the last command takes the disk as the argument (ie /dev/disk3) and not a partition (/dev/disk3sX)
 

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