Pictures burned to a CD will not open

I am not sure if this is the correct thread, but I have a problem with opening the pictures on a CD
My daughter took some pictures and burned them to a CD , which I can not open. It says there are no items on the CD. She gave the CD a name, but when the icon for it pops up on my Desk top it says " untitled CD. fpbf"

My daughter has an iMac running Snow Leopard. She saved the pictures as jpegs. The pictures open on her Mac and she tried them on a PC and they open there too.

She took the CD to my son's house and he has an iMac running Mountain Lion. The CD opens on his computer.

I have an iMac running Snow Leopard.

Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this problem ? We are out of ideas to try .

Thanks
Barbara

Sounds like you have a failed optical drive. iMacs use slot loaders and they are prone to failure alas.

harryb2448 said:

Sounds like you have a failed optical drive. iMacs use slot loaders and they are prone to failure alas.

Click to expand...

I tried aother CD's I burned and it open just fine

That's a strange one. Usually, when something like that happens it's because the CD was not burned properly - it wasn't closed and the TOC written. It would still open OK on the person's computer who burned it. However, since your son can open it on his computer, that doesn't sound like it might be the problem.

Anyway, ask your daughter to burn it again and to make sure she "closes" the CD and not leave it open for additional writes. Also tell her to burn it using the most compatible method and to burn it as a data CD not video.

chscag said:

That's a strange one. Usually, when something like that happens it's because the CD was not burned properly - it wasn't closed and the TOC written. It would still open OK on the person's computer who burned it. However, since your son can open it on his computer, that doesn't sound like it might be the problem.

Anyway, ask your daughter to burn it again and to make sure she "closes" the CD and not leave it open for additional writes. Also tell her to burn it using the most compatible method and to burn it as a data CD not video.

Click to expand...

Thanks! "What would be the most compatible method"?
I will ask her if she used burn as data and not as a Video.

We tried opening it in "Finder" --"iPhoto" and "Photo shop Elements 9" without success .
I looked in "Get Info" and it also says no items , the CD is empty.
This is a head scratcher

Thanks! "What would be the most compatible method"?
I will ask her if she used burn as data and not as a Video.

Click to expand...

Not knowing which burning software she's using the terminology may be different. For example.. my program will say "compatible for both Mac and PC". Or something similar. And yes it's important she burn it as data and not video. Pictures and photos as jpeg files are data files and not video.

chscag said:

Not knowing which burning software she's using the terminology may be different. For example.. my program will say "compatible for both Mac and PC". Or something similar. And yes it's important she burn it as data and not video. Pictures and photos as jpeg files are data files and not video.

Click to expand...

My daughter said she burned them a jpegs which is data and as I said they open on her and my son's Macs and a PC belonging to a friend .

Just to be sure, are the pictures on a CD or could it be a DVD by any chance? often failing optical drives can handle a CD but not a DVD.

harryb2448 said:

Just to be sure, are the pictures on a CD or could it be a DVD by any chance? often failing optical drives can handle a CD but not a DVD.

Click to expand...

I have the CD here and it is a Memorex CD-R
I just inserted an instructional DVD that I have and it works fine.
I have also tried other regular CD's and they open fine too
My daughter wondered if she had a bad CD so she re-burned another one that also does not open on my Mac but opens on hers and my son's Mac

I have been doing some searches for an answer to this problem . On CNET some one had this problem and was asked if it showed up in Disk Utility -
I inserted a different CD that I had burned and it does show up in Disk Utility under a line after the Hard Drive disks

I ejected the first CD and put in the one that will not open.
Now my Disk Utility is still showing the " First " CD I inserted and not the one I just put into the slot
Hum-m-m

The CNET article also said to check the "Disk Burning" info in "About this Mac" but it did not say what it should say
This is what mine says :

Firmware Revision: FM0S
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

I sure wish I could tell you definitively what the problem is. It does point to something not working right on your Mac since both your daughter and son are not having a problem with reading the CD. If those photos are important to you, ask your daughter to copy them to a flash drive and give them to you that way rather than using a CD. Flash drives are inexpensive and can hold a great deal more than CDs or DVDs.