[Jeikobu]

Hi, I'm having a problem. A while ago I burned data DVDs on my Windows XP PC. But when I try to play them on my Macintosh (using the same burner even), it doesn't recognize any of the files and tells me to Initialize (why I don't know since it's a DVD-R), Eject or Ignore. What can I do to get my Mac to recognize the DVD?

[bantha]

It might be an incompatible file system (NTFS?) or it might be damaged media.  Does the disc mount under Windows?

[V99]

(NTFS?)

[Count Zero]

Now really. You *can* burn DVDs in NTFS file format??

IMHO this can only be a crappy or damaged media. Does it mount on a WinXP machine?

[Jeikobu]

I burned it on a PC with a Windows XP system. And what do you mean "crappy or damaged media"? The burner should be fine. As I said it's the same one that I used to burn the data DVDs in the first place, it's just that I burned them on the PC, and now the burner is hooked up to my Mac, but for some reason it can't read the DVDs. And it can't be that the DVDs didn't burn correctly either, since I remember reinserting the DVD into the burner to double-check when I had burned it on my PC.

[bantha]

"Media" refers to the disc, not the burner.  Crappy could mean that it degrades over (relatively short periods of) time, not just that it burns incorrectly right off the bat.  I hope the implication of "damaged" is obvious, and that it can and usually does happen at times later than 5 minutes after creating the disc.  Of course, this is all moot if the disc in question actually does mount without problem (now) on a Windows machine, so see if you can test that condition.

[Jeikobu]

The problem is my dad's PC has been down for well over two months now, and try as he might, he's had no luck fixing it, and he knows alot about computers (I think he said it's the motherboard). But anyway, I suppose that means I'll never know until I can test it on a PC?

[bantha]

The null hypothesis (whenever an optical disc can't be read) is that the disc is damaged (scratched being the most common, but sometimes just generally...crappy).  You have submitted an alternate theory that it mounts on other systems, based on one data point of it happening some time in the past.  Since most damage to optical discs occurs in the middle or the end of their lifetimes, your next logical step is to test that theory again by getting the disc to mount on another machine, be it Mac, Win or ... miscellaneous ("Hindu!  There are 700 million of us!"  "That's super.").  Failing that, you have to assume the disc is fubar, since there really aren't any alternate file systems that Windows burns media in that Macs can't read.

My only other idea is that it might be DVD+R and you might be on an old mac that doesn't support reading those (were there any?).  What are your machine and OS specs?  This really is a long shot, and I'm not going to be able to tell you whether it pans out, but someone else might...

[Count Zero]

Wait... can you tell us exactly *how* you burned the data to that dvd?
IIRC if you have burned it file by file via the Windows Explorer, it might be that it is written in some strange package-like structure that only can be read on WinXP or even only on WinXP AND the same writer if the disk is not finished/closed.
If that is the case, that's really bad luck.

By crappy media I meant the quality of the DVD-R disk. If you take a look at tests they sometimes so in computer magazines, you'll see that some brands are much more reliable than others (like here in Germany, I'll rather pay 20% more for Verbatim media instead of buying 'Sky' or other low-cost-sh*t).

[niteshadepromise]

I'm actually having this same problem.
My boyfriend is a strict Windows XP user, and I'm a Mac user, and we've come across needing a large amount of data to be burned to a DVD via his computer(since I do not have a DVD burner in my laptop just yet).  However, we're also coming across some problems.
He's been using Nero to burn the Data to the DVD.  At first we were using DVD+RWs, but after having some problems, we did some researching, and found out that Macs have trouble accepting +RW/+Rs.  So we wandered off to buy some DVD-Rs, and keep running into the same problems.  However, I don't even get a message saying it can't read it, or anything.  It simply ejects the disc.  
It seems like it just isn't reading anything on the disc, or can't detect anything on the disc, and I'm running out of reasons why.  It's all very frustrating.  The only thing I can think of at the moment is if there might be something wrong with Nero?
I'd appreciate you guy's help more then you would think. ^_^