Are CD/DVD-roms known to be quirky?

[no.to...@gmail.com]

Ich kan auch Deutch lesen
For years I avoided CDs, while I was waiting for the fad to pass.
Now my 3 PCs try to use an IDE CDrom and a usb-CD/DVD r/w,
which I can also unplug from its usb-interface to use as the
[original guts] IDE-device.

Often I need to re-try mounting before I succeed.
With 3 PCs and multiple versions of Linux and 2 CD-roms, moving
between PCs it's already confusing, without the apparent random
failure to mount.

Here's the latest trace:-
# mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom ==
mount: block device /dev/hdd is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: No medium found
-------------
A good readable CD was present.
This PC/CDrom combination worked last week.
Now it 'retracts the tray' for: `mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom`,
which shows 'something'. But even for the previous CD which it was
reading last week, it won't mount.

And the other strange fact is that both:
eject /mnt/cdrom
and
eject /dev/hdd
work, so that somehow '/dev/hdd' IS associated with
'/mnt/cdrom' ?!?

==TIA.

[John Doe]

no.top.post gmail.com wrote:

> For years I avoided CDs, while I was waiting for the fad to
> pass.

Hopefully not using floppy drives all this time. The CD/DVD era
might be approaching its end, but the floppy drive era was over
years ago.

Not that it matters... Whatever floats your boat.

[Ant]

On 12/5/2010 9:35 PM PT, John Doe typed:

I still use 3.5" floppy disks on old PCs for their boot disks. :)
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[TVeblen]

CD and DVD media are relatively stable and reliable.

Optical devices, on the other hand, are notoriously weak. They suffer
from 2 inherent problems: spinning disks that require mechanical
mechanisms to function that can wear out and physically break, and a
laser reader that requires precise calibration.
Optical readers in PCs fail at a disappointing rate. I have seen posts
of these complaints for many years. The solution to a quirky drive is
replace it, they're cheap enough. Do not waste your time (as I have)
trying to fix them.

Don't wait so long this time around. The spinning disks days are
numbered. Begin making your move to flash media (thumbdrives, SSDs) at
your next upgrade opportunity.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article <idhrpc$eis$1...@news.eternal-september.org>,
no.to...@gmail.com writes

># mount /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom ==
> mount: block device /dev/hdd is write-protected, mounting read-only
> mount: No medium found

The drive's broken. Replace it.

>And the other strange fact is that both:
> eject /mnt/cdrom
>and
> eject /dev/hdd
>work, so that somehow '/dev/hdd' IS associated with
>'/mnt/cdrom' ?!?

/dev/hdd is the physical CD drive itself, the disc in it is mounted on
/mnt/cdrom.

try 'cat /proc/ide/hdd/model'

--
Mike Tomlinson