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Photos on CD - not being recognized by mac

post #1 of 23
12/5/02 at 7:16am
Thread Starter 
I am in the middle of switching and I have a bunch of photos on CD. Used Adeptec easy CD creator using the drop and drag function and closed each cd to be read by most cd players, as instructed. When I put it in my mac it isn't recognized, hence I can't see any pics. Any ideas??. I've tried a couple different CD's and tried them on the imac and powerbook. Help!!thx!
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post #2 of 23
12/5/02 at 9:56am
Are these CD-R discs or CD-RWs? CD-R discs have to be ISO 9660 format I think, but that should be fairly standard for a cross-platform CD.

[ 12-05-2002: Message edited by: BuonRotto ]</p>
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post #3 of 23
12/5/02 at 11:53am
Some more information might help here.

Are you running some flavour of OS X, or still in OS 9?

In what way exactly are they not recognized?

Do they at least mount to your desktop, or do your cd-drives just sit there doing nothing?

I think that there shouldn't be any problems at all, since macintosh has always done their best to provide inter-os compatibility.
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post #4 of 23
12/5/02 at 12:19pm
Thread Starter 
It's OS X and the cd is not recognized. I have no problems with audio CD's and DVD's.
When these picture CD's are put in I can hear the drive spinning for about a minute, then it stops and ....nothing.
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post #5 of 23
12/5/02 at 1:11pm
Do you have classic installed? You might want to try and boot up in classic and see what gives. Maybe they are recognised there, so you could copy their contents to your comp for use in OS X.

Do you happen to know in what format you burned them?

Also, are you sure it's not a media defect? (e.g. can you still mount them on PC)
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post #6 of 23
12/5/02 at 4:19pm
Are you writing the original on a Windoz system.

Last I heard Windoz writes photo CDs in "ISO 9660 + Joliet".

Unless someone knows different, Apple never has been able to read Joliet.

There is usually a Windoz option to override the format to be standard ISO 9660.

It was obvious in the past that some Drug store photo places used Windoz to make their Photo CDs because they could only make Joliet disks and it bugged me to death. Most chains have since changed to standard ISO 9660.

[ 12-05-2002: Message edited by: MrBillData ]</p>
The Bush public works project to repave the road from Suspicion to Paranoia is over budget.
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The Bush public works project to repave the road from Suspicion to Paranoia is over budget.
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post #7 of 23
12/5/02 at 4:31pm
This seems to me a major problem. Again a negative consequence of miniscule market share. It's not really Apple's fault that M$ can't seem to keep any standard "standard" but we have to live with it nonetheless. If most people use PC's, that becomes the defacto standard. Is there any utility that will let macs read these discs? If you fire up VPC, will the discs in question read?
IBL!
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IBL!
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post #8 of 23
12/5/02 at 5:51pm
Well I did find this.
<a href="http://www.tempel.org/joliet/" target="_blank">http://www.tempel.org/joliet/</a>

They have the following in their FAQ:
Apple is supposedly working on their own implementation for that. I have not tried it out myself yet, but others told me that it works somehow, although not perfectly.

[ 12-05-2002: Message edited by: MrBillData ]</p>
The Bush public works project to repave the road from Suspicion to Paranoia is over budget.
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The Bush public works project to repave the road from Suspicion to Paranoia is over budget.
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post #9 of 23
12/6/02 at 4:07am
I don't understand that: you are able to burn Joliet disks with Toast (try ISO 9whatever then select, then layout, there Joliet).

Also, Matsu, I really don't think your comment is correct here: Apple has always done their best to support as many disk formats as possible. Mac users have always been able to read much more disks than Windows users.
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post #10 of 23
12/6/02 at 6:20am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the responses and here are some answers to the questions asked:
They are CD-R, no idea what you mean by ISO 9660.
I do have classic installed and I will try that this weekend.
They still work on my PC.

If I can't figure this out, would Move2Mac be an option if I loaded them back on to the PC? How does Move2Mac work regarding viruses on my PC, anybody have any perspective or experience? Do PC virus' only effect PC and not Mac? Thanks for the help
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post #11 of 23
12/6/02 at 6:59am
What I meant was that Apple is always in the position of having to adapt to the semi-standards of PC land.
IBL!
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IBL!
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post #12 of 23
12/6/02 at 7:35am
[quote]Originally posted by Kstyle:
<strong>If I can't figure this out, would Move2Mac be an option if I loaded them back on to the PC? How does Move2Mac work regarding viruses on my PC, anybody have any perspective or experience? Do PC virus' only effect PC and not Mac? Thanks for the help</strong><hr></blockquote>

I'm not an expert on viruses, but I suppose that they will always be executables (i.e. PROGRAMS in layman's terms). As PC & MAC programs are NOT (in no way, except through ingenious emulation - e.g. Virtual PC) interchangable, I believe that this is not possible. Unless of course some smart Alec started making lowest common denominator viruses in Java. But that's probably not possible either.

Some people at AppleInsider like to assert the fact that there are NO viruses for OS X. I wouldn't make that claim, but I do think that you will not easily run across one.


Also: the CD situation: it is, to say the least, highly irregular. There is one specific program in Classic that actually 'hijacks' the cd-drive to copy cd's. It is called Astarte CD-Copy (but might be hard to find). I presume that you could ultimately resort to that app if problems persist.
You could as around for it.
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post #13 of 23
12/6/02 at 6:18pm
  • Escher
  • Sub-PowerBook Lobbyist
Kstyle: I've had a similar problem with a picture CD that a neighbor of mine burned on her Wintel PC. I can't read it on my Macs. Neither under OS X nor 9. So I don't have a solution for reading the CD on your Mac.

However, have you thought about networking your PC to your Mac? Assuming your PC has an Ethernet port, you can simply use a cheap Ethernet Crossover cable to connect the two systems and copy over all your image files. I have no idea as to the specifics of networking a Mac and a PC, but I know it's easily possible. Somebody here should know.

Escher

[ 12-06-2002: Message edited by: Escher ]</p>
"The only laptop computer that's useful is the one you have with you."
Until we get a 3 lbs sub-PowerBook, the 12-inch PowerBook will do.
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"The only laptop computer that's useful is the one you have with you."
Until we get a 3 lbs sub-PowerBook, the 12-inch PowerBook will do.
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post #14 of 23
12/7/02 at 5:37am
Wouldn't you be able to avoid this scenario under VPC? Just so that you don't need to use two computers? Is it possible to read the disc under VPC and transfer the relevant files to the mac directory of your choice? I dunno, just askin'
IBL!
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IBL!
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post #15 of 23
12/7/02 at 7:35am
  • Escher
  • Sub-PowerBook Lobbyist
[quote]Originally posted by Matsu:
<strong>Wouldn't you be able to avoid this scenario under VPC?</strong><hr></blockquote>

I imagine that you could. However, VPC costs US$200 while a crossover Ethernet cable should run you no more than US$10. Networking a Mac and a PC should require no additional software and be fairly easy. IMO, $190 is a lot of money to save.

Escher
"The only laptop computer that's useful is the one you have with you."
Until we get a 3 lbs sub-PowerBook, the 12-inch PowerBook will do.
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"The only laptop computer that's useful is the one you have with you."
Until we get a 3 lbs sub-PowerBook, the 12-inch PowerBook will do.
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post #16 of 23
12/7/02 at 8:26am
Ok I went through the same thing. If I'm correct you used
direct cd which uses udf volumes. I know the fealling, i had 4gigs of mp3 on those cd's. Anyways see as nobody
in here knows what there talking about and are wasting your time just go to <a href="http://www.roxio.com/en/support/roxio_support/toast/toast_software_updatesv4.jhtml" target="_blank">Roxio's site for the OS9 extension</a>
to read those cd's. Get the extension plop it in your extensions folder in your os9 extensions folder and wamo. Thats it....

Ohh and restrt too...hehe

[ 12-07-2002: Message edited by: dmgeist ]</p>
In the future that I see, we are the system.
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In the future that I see, we are the system.
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post #17 of 23
12/7/02 at 1:11pm
Burned with DirectCD -- for CD-RW discs, right? Those have a weird format, like the poster above mentioned. I think it's an Adaptec thing, not a Windows thing per se. If you use Easy CD Creator's Data CD option, it should read fine on the Mac. I always make sure to use that tool if I have to move stuff via CD between my PC at work and my Mac at home. (FYI, the Data CD tools use the ISO 9660 disc format I referred to above.)

I wouldn't be surprised if Move2Mac helped in this regard too though I (obviously) haven't had reason to check it out.
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post #18 of 23
12/9/02 at 11:32am
[quote]Originally posted by dmgeist:
<strong>Ok I went through the same thing. If I'm correct you used
direct cd which uses udf volumes. I know the fealling, i had 4gigs of mp3 on those cd's. Anyways see as nobody
in here knows what there talking about and are wasting your time just go to <a href="http://www.roxio.com/en/support/roxio_support/toast/toast_software_updatesv4.jhtml" target="_blank">Roxio's site for the OS9 extension</a>
to read those cd's. Get the extension plop it in your extensions folder in your os9 extensions folder and wamo. Thats it....

Ohh and restrt too...hehe

[ 12-07-2002: Message edited by: dmgeist ]</strong><hr></blockquote>

Well of course you'll have a problem if you have a CD with UDF. UDF was developed for DVD disks.

You can also put Premium gas in a Lawn mower.

Both are foolish things to do. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
The Bush public works project to repave the road from Suspicion to Paranoia is over budget.
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The Bush public works project to repave the road from Suspicion to Paranoia is over budget.
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post #19 of 23
1/17/03 at 9:53am
I have been down the same path, trying to figure out why any of my various Macs cannot read these cds.

Here is what I have found:
The OFFENDING cds are usually created using the "create photo cd" option of Easy CD Creator on a wintel box. If you take one of these unreadble cds and copy all of the files on it to a new cd and burn a "data cd" using Easy CD Creator you should be able to read the cd on your mac. Of course, this means you have to have a wintel box around to perform the copy.

The problem does not appear to be related to the UDF extension (OS 9). If you create your cds on a wintel pc using the "data cd" option things seem to be just fine. My uneducated guess is that when you use the "photo cd" option on a pc, it is burning a cd that creates an "auto launch" program on the cd which makes the cd unreadable on a mac.

Posts and questions sent to ROXIO have been largely ignored. I ask that all Mac users whine about these unreadable cds at the Roxio site and on the Apple forums. I still have AppleCare for one of my Macs and I am going to do some whining on the phone. If I get any usefull info back I will post on this thread.
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post #20 of 23
1/17/03 at 6:23pm
hey, watch where you're swinging those mixed metaphors... one second we're asking about CD-RW, the next its UDF, then we're back to Orange Book sub II.

make sure we're clear on the distinctions <a href="http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq02.html#S2-2" target="_blank">here</a>

make sure you have the superdrive patch (if appropriate) and/or firmware updates

sacrifice a chicken

if you're convinced they're coasters and have given up all hope, try the same trick that seems to solve certain non-readable (newfangled rip-protection) music CD's... draw a stripe from center to edge on the bottom surface using a felt marker

if you've got the latest toast, drop the cd in while toast is running... it should allow you to do a get disc info where the finder spins ball

full homer headslap is due if its an RW disc and your struggling mac ain't RW, merely CDR or CD-ROM... dead horse, baby

not enough info to troubleshoot much further.

post a system profiler screenshot of your drive info with devices tabs open if you can. toast disc info too if it allows.
"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them" -Isaac Asimov
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"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them" -Isaac Asimov
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post #21 of 23
1/20/03 at 7:18am
I was trying to reply to the original question/problem. The first post stated that it was a problem with easy cd creator (pc) and a "photo" cd. It seems that the thread got off track a wee bit.

I have a handfull of these offending, wintel, easy cd creator photo cds and you can't read them on a mac. If you force toast to look at them, it does show the file space used on the cd, but you still can't read the damn things. I have tried on:
Mac Cube with a CD/DVD reader,(OS9 and OSX);
Mac G3 tower with Sony CD-RW drive (OS9);
Mac Cube with external APS CD-RW drive (OS9 and OSX).

So far the only solution seems to be to duplicate them on a wintel box as I described in my previous post.

It is pretty frustrating and I hate to explain to a wintel user that I can't read their dang cds on a mac.

The chicken sacrifice doesn't seem to help, maybe Apple could release a version of babelfish?
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post #22 of 23
1/20/03 at 9:13am
anyone know if you can see files on them from the terminal?

i've been able to see files from there that i can't see otherwise. (files that neither my Macs or PC's could find, the terminal could see just fine)

just a thought.

as for the rest of this thread, the folks answering regarding the photo cd option as being the culprit are correct. i've had problems with these cd's on PC machines as well. they often have a tough time on machines that aren't like the machine they were burned on. in any case, your best bet would be to reburn as data cd's as suggested above. it'll take some time, and $1.50 in new cd's, but that would be the easiest way to do it.
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post #23 of 23
1/29/03 at 9:44am
Thread Starter 
The CD's were created using the drop and drag option (data version)in Easy CD Creator, if memory serves me.

I resolved my problem by copying the files back on to my PC and using Move to Mac, worked like a charm, and worth the $50.

Thanks for the responses
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