Okay, I've got an HDD icon on my desktop, but none for my DVD drive. I do have a dvd drive, it shows up in the System Profiler. However it does not show up in the Disk Utility, or in my Go->Computer window. The other day I went to isntall apple's X11 from my Tiger dvd and had to reboot the machine and hold down the mouse button just to get the drive to open. I'm running a PowerMac G5 btw. Is there something wrong here or am I just missing the obvious? Btw, I'm new to macs, so I'm trying to learn all this stuff and "missing dvd drive" doesn't seem to be a common problem. I've googled and googled, to no avail. With OS X being based on Unix, could this be a mounting problem?
Missing DVD drive
- Thread starter cius
- Start date
With no disc in the DVD drive - no icon representing the (missing) disc in the DVD drive will be present on the Desktop. Note: it is the disc's icon that appears - on the 'Desktop' and within 'Disk Utility', etc., not an icon of the DVD drive. [14.02.2006]
With no disc in the DVD drive - no icon representing the (missing) disc in the DVD drive will be present, in the left side volume list, in 'Disk Utility'. Note: it is the disc's icon that appears - on the 'Desktop' and within 'Disk Utility', etc., not an icon of the DVD drive. [14.02.2006]
With a disc in the DVD drive - an icon (of the disc, not the DVD drive) will appear on the Desktop ... if - 'Finder's preferences is set to display such.
Select 'Finder's 'Finder, Preferences ...' menu item, and then click on the 'General' tab. The 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' check box must have a check mark present for inserted discs (into the DVD drive) to appear on the Desktop.
With a disc in the DVD drive - an icon representing the disc will be present, in the left side volume list, in 'Disk Utility'.
Whether or not the 'Finder's 'Finder, Preferences ...' menu item's 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' check box has a check mark, when a disc (at least a data disc) is inserted - a window displaying the contents of the disc is displayed.
Typically, when posting to a forum - one specifics their model Mac and MacOS X / System version number.
Ejecting a disc:
Assuming an iMac / PowerMac is being used, with a standard keyboard, to eject a disc, not in use by any application(s), press the [upper right most] 'eject' key.
With a disc in the DVD drive - and its icon representing the disc present in the left side volume list, in 'Disk Utility', click on the disc's icon, to select it, and then click on 'Disk Utility's 'Eject' button.
With no disc in the DVD drive - no icon representing the (missing) disc in the DVD drive will be present, in the left side volume list, in 'Disk Utility'. Note: it is the disc's icon that appears - on the 'Desktop' and within 'Disk Utility', etc., not an icon of the DVD drive. [14.02.2006]
With a disc in the DVD drive - an icon (of the disc, not the DVD drive) will appear on the Desktop ... if - 'Finder's preferences is set to display such.
Select 'Finder's 'Finder, Preferences ...' menu item, and then click on the 'General' tab. The 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' check box must have a check mark present for inserted discs (into the DVD drive) to appear on the Desktop.
With a disc in the DVD drive - an icon representing the disc will be present, in the left side volume list, in 'Disk Utility'.
Whether or not the 'Finder's 'Finder, Preferences ...' menu item's 'CDs, DVDs, and iPods' check box has a check mark, when a disc (at least a data disc) is inserted - a window displaying the contents of the disc is displayed.
Typically, when posting to a forum - one specifics their model Mac and MacOS X / System version number.
Ejecting a disc:
Assuming an iMac / PowerMac is being used, with a standard keyboard, to eject a disc, not in use by any application(s), press the [upper right most] 'eject' key.
With a disc in the DVD drive - and its icon representing the disc present in the left side volume list, in 'Disk Utility', click on the disc's icon, to select it, and then click on 'Disk Utility's 'Eject' button.
Thanks for all the info barhar. I appreciate it. I'm still trying to learn how to do even the simplest things on a mac as this is the first time I've ever used one extensively. I thought I did mention that I was using a powermac G5 and running Tiger though. Anyway, thanks again for the info, it explained things perfectly.
To put it more simply for future reference: The Mac shows only *mounted* drives or "volumes". There's no sense in showing an empty DVD drive, since you can't really do anything with it, anyway.
(Of course in systems like Windows, where you *do* have icons for empty drives, they can attach functions to the drive's icon which result in a warning that you have to enter a medium. Like: You can tell the floppy drive to format a disk and it'll tell you to first _insert_ one. I find the Mac way much more logical and user-friendly. That Windows-users find it _non_ user-friendly is, of course, only an effect of them using Windows before using a Mac.)
(Of course in systems like Windows, where you *do* have icons for empty drives, they can attach functions to the drive's icon which result in a warning that you have to enter a medium. Like: You can tell the floppy drive to format a disk and it'll tell you to first _insert_ one. I find the Mac way much more logical and user-friendly. That Windows-users find it _non_ user-friendly is, of course, only an effect of them using Windows before using a Mac.)