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A Warning About Nonstandard Discs
This post is only peripherally about Aperture, but it’s a technical tip that I thought I’d share based on a purchase I made last week:
I was in a pinch a few days ago and I needed to pick up an inexpensive card reader to use in an Aperture demo. I headed over to everyone’s favorite (if not slightly overwhelming) J&R Music, which happens to be right across the street from my office. J&R is an institution here in New York — the store is spread out among an entire block in lower Manhattan, with separate buildings for selling different types of merchandise. There’s the music and DVD store, the computer store, the home electronics store, and the photography store (I’m probably forgetting two or three).
So I grabbed the only card reader they appeared to have in stock: the SanDisk Extreme USB 2.0 Reader. I would have preferred a firewire reader like this model but for $20 the USB model was all I needed for my demo. I headed back to the office, and tore the package apart to find that SanDisk is distributing their card reader software on mini-CDs.
CD-R shown for reference
Folks, this is the Inside Aperture site. Which means that there’s a good chance that many of our readers are Mac users. Of those users, there’s a good chance that many of you are using MacBook Pros, PowerBooks, iMacs, or MacBooks. Please!!! Don’t ever try to put one of these non-standard sized discs in any optical drive that is “slot-loading”. These are the drives on portables and iMacs in which the disc gets sucked in. These small discs are designed to be used only in tray-loading drives — as in the Mac Pro’s drive, where a disc tray comes out and the disc is placed on it. Back when I worked in repair I had too many conversations in which I had to brake the news to a Mac user that their optical drive had to be replaced because they put one of these small discs in it and it never came back out.
For more information, check out this Apple.com Support article. Back to Aperture next week.
Comments (9)
Another reason to keep your old iMac 'screen on a stick' G4 model. The horizontally opening tray reads these fine and you can wi-fi the contents over to a full sized disc on your latest and greatest MacBook.
Plus the G4 looks a whole lot better ....
This is just lame of Apple, really.
The slot-loading CD player in my 1992 Honda Civic would take 3" CDs just fine.
I'm surprised you'd even bother with those mini discs. I've yet to find a card reader or thumbdrive that doesn't work default with Mac OS. All those discs contain FUD.
I'm curious to know why the drive would necessarily be "shot." I've had mine out before, and it looked easy enough to get into if you've got the right screwdriver bits. Does it damage the mechanism somehow?
Daniel, you make a good point that I should have mentioned: there's no need to install the driver on the Mac. The disc is included for Windows users. But so many non-technical computer users get a disc and just assume they're supposed to install the software on it, without realizing that Mac OS X supports many devices natively.
In terms of the specifics of the drive failure: in my experience, the slot-loading drives aren't capable of ejecting the small discs. In order to get one of these small discs out of the drive, it requires first removing the drive from the computer (no small task) and then taking the drive physically apart. Removing the drive requires an Apple repair technician, and as for taking the drive apart: this isn't actually a procedure that Apple does. So they'd have to replace the drive.
All in all an expensive mistake.
@Daniel - The SanDisk is not all FUD. The one that came with my 8GB Extreme III CF card had photo rescue software that I had to use because I got delete happy on my camera one day and removed one too many pictures. It worked so I was happy.
@ALL - I also tried this in my MacBook Pro. It wasn't until it was too late to easily get it out before I noticed it was stuck. I checked Apple's online docs and sure enough the drive doesn't support smaller disks. After having a small heart attack, I got a small screw driver to take it apart. I had the screws on the bottom and sides off first, then I went to remove them from the back. When I did the Disk just fell out of the drive.
I'd turn off the system and use gravity.
I then put the disk in my old G4 iMac - I still love that machine. If I remember correctly I had to use stuffit to extract the Mac stuff (which my old G4 from Panther days still has).
Charlie,
I am confused about your use of the word "nonstandard" when referring to the smaller 8-cm discs. I still have some early CD drives (tray-loading) dating back to the early 80s as well as an assortment of drives from every decade since. They ALL (tray-loading) are compatible with 8-cm discs. In what sense are they "nonstandard?" The way I see it, the blame here lies with those who manufacture slot-loading drives with no consideration of compatibility with 8-cm discs.
I have a number of slot-loading drives. Only one of them, which I obtained from fastmac.com, mentions anything about 8-cm discs in the accompanying instructions. That one claims to be compatible with 8-cm discs. However, a rep from fastmac was surprised when I asked him to verify 8-cm compatibility and advised me not to even attempt to use the smaller discs in the drive, so I haven't.
Those little CDs ARE non-standard as far as I'm concerned. I can't remember how many years it's been since I've used (or needed to use) one of these things. It must've been on my old G3 iMac. I just wish they would go away like those silly business card CDs finally did. Remember those?
I agree with Daniel. I've never seen a card reader used on a Macintosh need anything from those discs. Like most things Mac it's just plug it in and watch it work. Besides, if there was an exception, it would be downloadable from the manufacturer's website anyway. I always toss bundled software directly in the trash as it's usually outdated anyway. Then I visit the site if I have to, which is never (so far). Knock on wood.
Regarding the unfortunate scenario of putting a small disc in a laptop slot, there's a "trick" you can use. Although I would prefer to call it a "manual technique". Also keep in mind this is for the physically coordinated readers out there - but we're all photographers, right? We're accustomed to doing things ourselves... in the field... manually... because we can. Anyway, power off your computer and close the lid. Hold the laptop edge down, with the slot facing towards the floor. Now bring the laptop down fast and stop it abruptly in a sharp jerk. Think stuck ketchup bottle here. After a couple of these yanks, you should see the CD's edge peeking out. If you're a brute, you might even deposit it onto the floor where it belongs. Before you disregard this as crude or dangerous, this is probably what the technician will try first behind closed doors anyway. This is also why my habit with optical slot drives is to nudge the media home, don't slap it in there like a piece of toast.
Just my 2 cents...
Thomas, "Nonstandard" is simply the language I've seen used to describe discs that are smaller than 120mm.
And Steven, good to hear of that technique... maybe it will help some folks who find themselves in the unfortunate predicament of having a disc stuck in their drive.
You don't necessarily need to disassemble the drive. A 8cm disc will only go in so far. The drive won't grab it, so it usually still touches the grey dust seam. Simply use pincers or small pliers to drag it out.