Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks Is iMac i7 trashing CDs & DVDs--what to do?

I have an iMac i7 that arrived last November. Since then, I have noticed that there are a lot of scratches on the recorded surface (not the label side) of CDs and DVDs that have been caused by using the discs in the iMac i7. Access to the iMac is restricted to two adult persons and they are both very careful in how they use it. I believe that abuse is not an issue. Today, I attempted to do maintenance by booting from the Install DVD, but it would not boot. I tried a couple of methods to get it to boot but it would not.

Upon examining the recorded surface of the Install DVD, there seemed to be more scratches on it than there were when I first inserted it into the i7's slot today.

I can contact AppleCare for an appointment to repair the slot drive, but I've always had a suspicion that slot drives are not as good as those with a horizontal tray, such as the one in my Mac Pro. My first urge is to forget the slot drive and buy a USB2 compatible external DVD/CD drive. Is this just an emotional reaction or does it have some merit to it? I looked at OWC's offerings and there are many. Apple's online store didn't appear to have any except one for the MacBook Air. Comments and advice are most welcome.

Apart from brand and batch variability, slot-loading drives tend to have a shorter service life than tray-loading mechanisms. However, 'scratching' mechanisms occur with both, and clearly fall in the 'defective' category. If I were you I'd have the slot-loading drive checked out and if necessary replaced (AppleCare?), but would also consider getting an external tray-loading drive. Those help with copying disks, can handle the odd-size disks the slot loader cannot, and provide a backup mechanism when the internal slot-loader has issues.

Thanks. That sounds like level-headed good sense. Much obliged.

and you will likely be very pleased by the upgrade in speed that you will get from an external drive!

second (third?) the opinion on using an external drive. Even a nice ext lacie firewire works well. OWC sells a large variety too, up to bluray writers, just name your price point and pick something.

I'd be wanting to test the drive - get a fresh disk and pre-inspect and insert and burn and read etc, and pull it out and double check to confirm the problem. If it's under warranty still you should have no problem getting it replaced for free.

I prefer to treat my mbp's optical drive not necessarily as an 'emergency use only' thing, but at least a 'look for other options when possible'. Slot load mechanisms are a lot less sturdy than tray loaders. I loathe games that force you to have/keep the disc in the drive when playing.

I have ordered one of OWC's external tray loaders. Thanks for the tip on doing a little testing before taking it in for repairs. That will verify our experience with the Install Disk. The machine is still under warranty and AppleCare.

we get people in from time to time that. they are burning up to several discs a day with flatscreen imacs, and wear out the drive in a few months. We usually sell them a lacie firewire superdrive.

I did the testing by burning a 38MB sized movie to an apparently flawless blank CD-R. Upon ejecting the CD-R from the iMac's drive, there were many scratches on the playing surface. I didn't see any marks on the label surface, but that would be very difficult to see if there actually were some. By the way, the movie ran perfectly throughout its entire length.

well anywhichway you need to get the drive replaced.

curious, were the scratches like grooves on a record, or like the disc was slid across a table with sand on it, in straight lines?

if straight lines, it's the insert/eject that's scratching them

if circular, something is rubbing as the disc spins, surprised tho if that were the case and you couldn't hear it

It's straight, parallel lines about 3/8ths of an inch long. In one spot, there are 10 of them kind of stacked up and close together. There are several other stacks with less than 10 parallel lines close together.

All this happened by merely inserting the disk and burning it and then playing the movie from the disk and ejecting the disk. It lasted just a few minutes, but the movie was perfect. No flaws in video or sound.

We'll use the new external tray-loading DVD drive and ignore the iMac's drive. As I mentioned, my wife doesn't want to give up custody of the iMac while she's in the throes of finishing a book. Thanks for the assist. It's really appreciated.

I just received a tray-loading external DVD drive from OWC. I you're interested, search on OWC's web page for OWCMRF82SD22B
Price was 112.00 plus shipping. It is very quick and quiet and has a solid feeling. Boot time for the OS X Install DVD was about one minute. This was the same DVD that wouldn't boot on the iMac's slot drive. Yes, I'm getting a replacement Install DVD as a precaution. Thanks again for your good advice.

The second time I tried the damaged Install DVD in the new tray-loading drive, it refused to boot. Thanks to AppleCare, I'm receiving a replacement Install DVD with their complements. So far, I've been really pleased with Apple's customer service and that includes a lot of years.