Interesting Disk Utility Problem

I've got an unusual problem with Disk Utility that I can not figure out no matter how hard I try. I'm hoping someone here doesn't mind helping me figure this one out.

I have an external USB DVD-CD writer that I use with my MacBook Pro running OSX 10.6.8. The drive is connected through a powered USB hub because it has a twin USB cable. That's how I've always used it successfully. My internal Super Drive is broken.

I've used this drive hundreds of times with Disk Utility to read and burn CD & DVD disks. Today, however, it refuses to cooperate with this drive.

When I connect the drive, Finder sees it. If I put in an already-burned disk (home made or factory made) the computer sees it & accesses it fine. But, in Disk Utility if I wish to burn a disk image, the drive is not listed (only the broken super drive shows up).

I've tried ejecting the disk & re-inserting it. It still does not show up. I'll un-plug & re-plug the USB cord. No luck.

If I leave Disk Utility open & plug in, then unplug the drive's USB (with a blank disk in the drive) a window pops up & says
"Drive Not Supported Error 0x80020025"
I've tried re-starting the computer too. No luck

I'm wondering why this drive is all of a sudden not supported anymore? The last time I burned with it successfully was yesterday. All was good. (Finder still reads disks. Just Disk Utility has a problem with it)

I sure will appreciate any thoughts you all may have.
Enjoy Today!
Paul

It may be that your external USB optical drive is having problems writing to disks. Download the free "Burn" application and try to burn a disk with it rather than use Disk Utility. If it refuses to write to the disk with "Burn", I would start suspecting the writer itself.

Boy Do I Feel Like A Dope!

Thank you for taking the time to reply Chscag! I appreciate your tips. You bailed me out on this one by getting me to think about a bad drive. That caused me to get a bit analytical about the problem. (Translation- I'm a cheap skate & didn't want to buy a new drive.)

Following your thoughts that the drive might be wonky, I tried Burn & it did not see the drive. No error message either. The drive must be bad.

Then I had a brain storm. Usually trouble follows when I have one of those...
I tried booting to the other volume on my hard drive. The drive, Disk Utility and Burn all worked fine. I booted back to the main partition- No luck. Nobody worked. Hmmm....

I wasn't bright enough to try the simplest test of all first: Try the drive on my wife's identical computer. Duh!

Then a big ol' box of smart fell on my head, knocking a tiny bit of sense into it....
I did what I probably should have done in the first place-
I ran a permission repair, forced the maintenance scripts then reset the pram.
The external drive burned four good disks in a row from Disk Utility. It read as many as I could test. I believe life is now grand again!

Like a Super Dope, I did not test the drive in between to see which operation cured the problem.

Thanks, too for your link to Burn. That program is really nice to use. It's super easy & friendly to boot. I made some music CDs for fun with Burn and my USB drive. I like it!

Thank You Again & Enjoy Today!
Paul

Thanks for posting back Paul. Glad everything worked out OK. Have fun.

PGB1 said:

Then I had a brain storm. Usually trouble follows when I have one of those......

Then a big ol' box of smart fell on my head, knocking a tiny bit of sense into it...
Paul

Click to expand...

As for point 1 LMAO been there many times.
As for point 2 Where do I get one of those big boxes of smart. Can it be injected or does it have to hit me on the head?