Last week I wrote about a computer issue between my Apple desktop PC and an external CD/DVD drive (also an Apple product). I appreciated blogger feedback that a possible solution would be found after Apple reviewed files uploaded for analysis.
The very good news is that this week, there has been a determination of what caused the problem —The PC would go into restart mode when a certain CD was inserted into the drive, but not when the CD/DVD unit was connected without a disk.
A callback from Apple support this week determined that the issue was caused by a Universal Disk Format (UDF). Rather than try and explain it, there's info here. Thankfully, the external drive and the PC are both OK. This was verified when a music CD was inserted and the tracks were recognized and read. (So all is good with both devices.)
As it was explained to me, the computer was trying to access information on the inserted disk, then came to a bad area and went into shutdown mode. The term used referred to a "panic kernel." (Yes, it does sound ominous.) As alarming as the term sounds, Apple support explained that it's a self-protection mode for the computer.
Images on the CD had been backed up on a Windows desktop PC and that was presented as a "possible" reason for the conflict. Thankfully, the bulk of the CDs in this project have already been transferred onto several external hard drives.
Ironically, the same CD could be read on other Apple computers in our household: Grenville's desktop and a notebook PC. That being the case, I was advised to use an alternate computer to read the "problem" CD. Hopefully, this will work; however, if the CD (or others) don't read on another computer, the (unwelcome) advice was to discard it. Disappointing to learn as there's more CDs to go through to complete this project.
The good news is that copying CD images onto external hard drives is much "safer" in terms of failures, corruption and long-term storage. That said, I'm working on this project the next month or so until completion, then CDs are destroyed and trashed.
There's much speculation on how long CDs/DVDs "last." Several years ago, National Public Radio (NPR) aired this program on All Things Considered. It was interesting to read that there's "no average life span...as there's no average CD."
How do you store digital images — computer, CD/DVD media, external hard drive(s)?
12 comments:
before 5 years ago, cd's, since then on 3 external hard drives, all photos are put on 2 different ones, in case one crashes.
I am so happy they were able to assist you! I am so happy I found your blog!!! I am now following you - you can follow back if you wish at Annster's Domain
We have an external backup drive that we backup all of our data on. Before that, I used to backup photos on discs. Now we have computers that no longer have disc drives. So, a lot of discs and no where to read them.
I don’t have a lot of back ups.....I used to print photos and had thousands and thousands. I don’t print many anymore. We have some photos on CDs but now our laptops don’t have that capability. I’m not very good at technical things so I’ll ask my daughter, Amber, how I should back up some of them. She backed up the photos from when the quads were born and it’s going to cost her more than $1000 to get the whatever she used to back them up with opened!
Glad you got it fixed.
I have a separate internal drive for my photos, and I have an external backup drive that I update weekly, when I'm being good.
I think that's the first time I've heard of a panic kernel.
I'm so happy for you that the problem is explained and solved. We store our files on external drives. We avoid the cloud completely. As our security engineer son says, the cloud is only "someone else's computer."
Thank God that issue was diagnosed and resolved dear Dorothy :)
my eldest son always advised us to keep all the images online
my younger son does it but after limit we have to keep the in U.S.B and we have lots of them ,all are filled with almost 2000 images
Wishing you a blessed happy access of life and computer both my friend!
Glad you got that sorted out. I back all my photos on a jump drive and then on an external drive. I have been doing that for years and so far had no problems.
I kept all my photos and other files on an external hard drive and suddenly it stopped working. :( I have no idea how to restore my files. Luckily, I also have paper copies of important documents.
Now I have another hard drive and I back up things when I remember to do so. :)
So glad you got it all sorted out. Must have been quite a relief.
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