MP 1,1-5,1 Optical drive unmounting?

[cosmichobo]

G'day,

I have a Pioneer BD-RW BDR-209D drive in the upper bay of my 5,1. Installed it about 4 years ago.

I don't use it a whole lot... but right now sure need it - but it keeps disappearing.

Earlier today I wanted to insert a disc, but the computer didn't recognise the drive. I shut down, blew some air around to kill the dust bunnies, checked the connections... then booted back up - and the drive was there again.

But now, 6 hours later - the drive is gone again. The disc is still inside it, but Disk Utility and Terminal cannot see the drive.

What's going wrong? I think it is connected to Disk Utility? I was trying to "recover" the disc to a HDD partition... it was seeing it... and then - it was gone.

Is there a Terminal command to find it again?

Cheers

cosmic

--

Update - Restart has brought the drive back again... for now.

 

[cosmichobo]

It's disappeared again... Didn't open Disk Utility or really do anything with the drive this time, and it's disappeared.

Would the drive be failing? Or is this more likely on the Mac end of things?

 

[KeesMacPro]

To troubleshoot I would start with unplugging the drive and the SATA cables on the backplane and clean the connectors with contact cleaner.
Perhaps it's just a dirty/oxidized contact.

 

[cosmichobo]

To troubleshoot I would start with unplugging the drive and the SATA cables on the backplane and clean the connectors with contact cleaner.
Perhaps it's just a dirty/oxidized contact.

Sorry - hadn't noticed your reply!

Just went to pop a movie on, cos the kids have stolen the tv, and - gone again.

I'll give your idea a shot. Hopefully it's something simple like you've suggested. When the drive is "visible" - it seems to operate fine - just then disappears "randomly".

 

[cosmichobo]

Further to above... opened up, cleaned... And - first time the computer went to sleep, the optical drive disappeared.

I've done some googling - and see other 5,1 owners with this also occurring after sleep. No remedy that has worked... someone suggested using Toast, Disk-Disk copy, and then choose "Eject". This does trigger a "Disk has been inserted" dialogue box to appear, but it doesn't eject or in other way recognise the actual disk that's inserted...

Am thinking however that it's an OS issue...