why does Mac OS X think my USB drive is an empty CD

[M. Malone]

hey everyone, I just got a Sandisk Micro usb drive, and when I put it in, Mac OS X asks me what to do with the recordable CD, why?

 

[gman71882]

Need a little more info...

If you just tell it to mount... does is show up as a Disk image icon, or does is actually look like a CD icon ???
& If you copy stuff to it and try to eject does it want to try and burn it???

It SHOULD pop up on the Desktop and look like a Disk Image. You should then just be able to eject (drag to trash OR highlight & press command-E)

 

[M. Malone]

Need a little more info...

If you just tell it to mount... does is show up as a Disk image icon, or does is actually look like a CD icon ???
& If you copy stuff to it and try to eject does it want to try and burn it???

It SHOULD pop up on the Desktop and look like a Disk Image. You should then just be able to eject (drag to trash OR highlight & press command-E)

actually it pops up as both, one cd, and under it, the disk image, I can eject the CD, then it's a regular USB drive, but when I plug it in later, I get the same problem

 

[M. Malone]

actually it pops up as both, one cd, and under it, the disk image, I can eject the CD, then it's a regular USB drive, but when I plug it in later, I get the same problem

tried erasing using the utility, still nothing, somebody out there, what do I do?

 

[funkychunkz]

Make sure you erase from the highest level possible. If for example in disk util it showed a usb drive and a CD under *brandname*-device (or something similar), then select the top device and erase, repair, and un-partition as much as you can. Unplug it, restart and see if the problem persists. It could only by a buggy icon (weird formatted???, if it was configured with or for a pc, especially other than xp). If you notice any other weird icons you may want to flush your system cache. (delete /library/caches not /System/Library/Caches) If after another reboot (full reboot, not a terminal induced substitute, as they don't replace caches) see if the problem persists.

If it does then the last culprit that comes to mind is filesystem corruption. This does not in itself spell out major trouble, but rather that you should be cautious, and attempt repair with the supplied apple install CD.

 

[M. Malone]

Thank you to the both of you, but I found out why it did that, it turns out it's the retarded "smart" U3 software, I actually had to get on a Windows machine, download the U3 uninstaller to remove the software. here's all the info you'll need if you wanna get it fixed

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/24609792/m/611000617731

goodluck!