cds won't mount, iPod won't mount

[Mac M.D.]

I had posted some problems with cds mounting on a titanium g4 running system 10.1.3 in a previous thread. I now noticed that 2 different iPods won't mount on the desktop as well. The Apple System Profiler says the iPod is connected to the firewire port, but neither of them will mount or show up in iTunes.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? Basically I am losing all functionality in OS X since I can't mount or burn a cd, or connect either iPod.

Help!

I have reinstalled OS 10.1.1 and then updated to 10.1.3 to no avail. I really don't want to format the drive, but I don't know how to do a "cleaner" OS X install without losing everything.

Any help would be appreciated!

Gary Katz
Mac M.D. Inc.

[Mac M.D.]

Well, the problems seem to have disappeared now. I took my Users folder and a few select folders from the Library folder (screen savers, itunes etc) and backed them up. Then I completely trashed all remaining OS X files from the drive. I then reinstalled OS X 10.1.1 from the original system disks. Upon reboot, the cd and iPod showed on the desktop. I have yet to try updating to 10.1.3.

Apparently the problem lies deep within the core system files. Trashing prefs and reinstalling the system over itself didn't do the trick. All this time, the cd and ipod worked fine from OS 9.

I wish Apple would make it easier to find problems such as these without requiring a complete system reinstall.

The good news is that since the Users folder was backed up, getting everything back to how it was, was a piece of cake: login as root, replace the user it made me create on install with my backed up copy and boom...all is back. This is a great improvement over the control panel/extension/preference game of OS 9 and earlier.

If anyone else has this sort of problem...looks like a fresh install is what is needed.

[arbik]

All you need is a USB hub for your computer... What this does, is connect new USB hardware to your computer and allows for more ports available and will be a guaranteed fix... It'll cost all of ten dollars and will save you further hassle. Just go to your local tech store (Radio Shack - Fry's - Best Buy) and ask for a USB Hub and you'll be set!