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Aron Peterson · Aug 1, 2008, 03:50 PM

I've been getting the following message for the last two weeks when surfing with Safari. I haven't got any drives or discs attached. The sites I visit are pretty much just Gmail, Wikipedia, The Register, BBC, MacNN and Facebook. Rebooting doesn't make a difference either.

It only appears when Safari is in the foreground. Could this be some kind of spoof window in which clicking on either button gives someone remote access? I have reset Safari, cleared all caches with Cocktail, and rebooting once a day.

zombie punk · Aug 1, 2008, 03:51 PM

No, you have not been hacked - what happens if you press eject?

Aron Peterson · Aug 1, 2008, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by zombie punk

No, you have not been hacked - what happens if you press eject?

There's nothing to eject!

zombie punk · Aug 1, 2008, 04:02 PM

Well, are you sure? Check for disc images, usb devices etc, and open activity monitor to check for odd processes that might be trying to open something.

besson3c · Aug 1, 2008, 04:09 PM

Perhaps one of Safari's files was written to a disk image or some other removable device?

ghporter · Aug 1, 2008, 04:22 PM

Look for ANYTHING in Finder's Computer view that is not your hard drive or any discs you have mounted. You might also open Disk Utility and see what it shows in the left hand pane—I'm expecting that something will show up that isn't your hard drive or your optical drive. Maybe some sort of browser "helper" is trying to load, and instead of some hapless PC, it's found itself on a Mac. You may have visited a site that tries to infect computers, but it sure hasn't infected yours.

Aron Peterson · Aug 2, 2008, 02:49 AM

Apart from a system bug, corruption or hack the only thing it could be is the Huawei 3G modem I use. It has some flash memory which appears as an emulated CD drive under Windows but doesn't do anything on a Mac. But I've had this crap modem for 3 months now so why would I get this disk error message now? And the message doesn't come when I plug the modem in. It appears randomly.

Nexus5 · Aug 2, 2008, 03:00 AM

Removable drives are handled by the Finder. This dialog deos not look like a typical Finder dialog box. Also, the wording is not the typical wording Apple uses. Strange.

nexus5.

analogika · Aug 2, 2008, 03:48 AM

The standard dialog *always* gives you "Initialize..." "Ignore" "Eject" as options.

Aron Peterson · Aug 2, 2008, 04:24 AM

Originally Posted by Nexus5

Removable drives are handled by the Finder. This dialog deos not look like a typical Finder dialog box. Also, the wording is not the typical wording Apple uses. Strange.

nexus5.

It's popping up about three times a day for the last two weeks.

I correct one thing I said previously. It's not just when Safari is in the foreground because it just happened with EyeTV in the front.

Chuckit · Aug 2, 2008, 04:26 AM

It offers to let you initialize a CD? (It might. I don't remember off the top of my head.)

Aron Peterson · Aug 2, 2008, 04:31 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

It offers to let you initialize a CD? (It might. I don't remember off the top of my head.)

No. Only Windows initializes the device as a CD drive (because the 3G dial up application is held on the flash memory). On a Mac the flash is invisible and you have to use Network Prefs to connect the modem.

It's this thing:

Simon H · Aug 12, 2008, 08:47 AM

Aaron,

have you had a "phantom" share appear in finder too ? I've had a shared name appear a couple a couple of times and i have no idea where it came from. it's freaked me out a little but i can't see anything amiss anywhere and it's not on my network - at least not that i can find.

Simon

Aron Peterson · Aug 12, 2008, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by Simon H

Aaron,

have you had a "phantom" share appear in finder too ? I've had a shared name appear a couple a couple of times and i have no idea where it came from.
Simon

No Simon, no phantom shares. Apparently my brother is using the same modem (but branded by another company) and his doesn't do that. I think it might just be the way 3 has formatted the flash memory on the modem. So no prob here.

Just want to let Britons know that they should do NOT bother with 3's 3G service. I live in the heart of London and it's pretty appalling. I get frequent disconnects. I also don't like the way 3 calculates the data usage coming down the pipe.

T-Mobile is offering a better package right now so I'm going to go with them.

Veltliner · Aug 23, 2008, 11:35 PM

I had this "this disc is not readable by this computer" appearing regularly on my old 20" iMac G5.

Warranty repair replaced the DVD drive twice, but after a while it always reappeared.

I reinstalled the OS, and then it went away.

After doing this three times over the course of eight months it did not happen again.

To me it looks like a software thing.

Are you running a G5?