[X4U] can't read a cd rom written on a windows machine

[stephen e. schwartz]

[re-transmit; for some reason earlier post did not appear on the list]

a colleague on a windows machine burns a cd containing a bunch of documents
(powerpoint, word, pdf) and gives it to me.

I insert it in my powerbook G4 OSX 10.3.9. I hear a bit of chugging and
whirring for a while and then nothing. nada. zip.

I can eject it using the eject button on the powerbook.

Insert it into OS9 machine and at least it tells me that the disk is
unreadable and asks if I want to initialize it.

This has happened more than once, two colleagues. What are they doing
wrong? Or better what can I do to read the disk.

Its like the old days before PC Exchange and unreadable disks.

help please. any clues or suggestions. of course I can go back to the
originators, but that just gets them sore at me because I use a mac.

disks I can read on a command-I show iso 9660. I can of course ask them to
write in that format, but ...

thanks

-steve