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my Superdrive won't mount some disks—works fine on others.

my Superdrive won't mount some disks—works fine on others. The CDs I'm trying to mount are from "The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker" published in 2004. The CDs in the book were never used before.

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 30, 2020 6:10 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 31, 2020 2:43 PM

You can download Mojave here:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828

The Get button at the top-right will download it into your Applications folder. Don't run it from there.

You can then create a bootable memory stick via:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

and use it to install Mojave on an external drive.

You won't be able to use your Time Machine drive because Mojave needs APSF, which is incompible with Time Machine.



Shift-Option-⌘-R should get you an older version of Mac OS if your computer is new enough for Internet recovery, and old enough to run Mojave.

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

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15 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 31, 2020 2:43 PM in response to MRBarrett27

You can download Mojave here:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828

The Get button at the top-right will download it into your Applications folder. Don't run it from there.

You can then create a bootable memory stick via:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

and use it to install Mojave on an external drive.

You won't be able to use your Time Machine drive because Mojave needs APSF, which is incompible with Time Machine.



Shift-Option-⌘-R should get you an older version of Mac OS if your computer is new enough for Internet recovery, and old enough to run Mojave.

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

May 31, 2020 1:22 AM in response to MRBarrett27

I have the same book. It says "Compatible with nearly any home computer". I have a full-sized tray loading drive, not the slot-loading Apple Superdrive.


Disk Utility sees each disk as three sections of about 670 MB, 1 KB, and about 670 MB, the first two "Uninitialized", the third the name of the disk, "1925-1964" or "1965-2004". The sizes can't be right because it shows Capacity of about 780 MB. Partition Map is "Not Supported".


If the third section is selected (it is shown in grey as the only volume in the left column) is shows Type as "USB External Physical Volume". Clicking the Mount buttom generates "com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error 49153.".


Apparently Catalina removed support for HFS disks (not HFS+). Mojave could read, but not write them. Catalina can't even read them. Maybe the HFS code was 32-bit.

com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error 4… - Apple Community

https://swissmacuser.ch/hfs-volume-data-recovery-diskutility-could-not-mount-error-49153/#.XtNlNi2z2so

May 31, 2020 1:42 PM in response to MRBarrett27

I installed Mojave on an external drive and copied the PDF folders from the CDs to the computer. They open fine with Catalina's Preview.


One file per year, and you scroll through that years cartoons.


If your computer is too new to boot Mojave, you can try this:

https://swissmacuser.ch/hfs-volume-data-recovery-diskutility-could-not-mount-error-49153/#.XtNlNi2z2so


Or you could try installing Mojave in Parallels Desktop:

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-run-32-bit-apps-in-macos-catalina

Scroll down to the "Another Catalina Option" section.

Parallels Desktop has a 14 day free trial.

Jun 2, 2020 9:35 AM in response to MRBarrett27

Apple replaced HFS with HFS+ in January 1998, so the 2004 New Yorker CDs were using a file system that had been obsolete for six years.


The Mac OS code for reading HFS disks is probably 32-bit, so wouldn't work in Catalina, which is 64-bit only. It's not that Apple decided to remove some working feature. They would have had to go to the trouble of re-writing the code in 64-bit just to handle a file system that hasn't been used for over twenty years.


Maybe you can find someone with a Mac that isn't running Catalina. It only take a few minutes to copy the PDF's. Don't bother with the other files on the CDs.

my Superdrive won't mount some disks—works fine on others.

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