General

[Al Ray]

Okay heres the deal. On one of our computers the cd/dvd drive is not working properly. First I guess I should explain how I expect it to work. I drag and drop, save, copy to, whatever to the CD drive, a ballon appears saying I have files waiting to be written, I click this ballon, and click "write these files to cd" It writes them and I done.

Here is what is happening, The ballon apears, no files are shown, sometimes they show up and then dissapear, and when they stay long enough the cd wont write.

My computer, custom built, came with something called Nero, which hasent worked from the start. Supposedly I need this POS program to write files to my CD. So I removed the program, and reinstalled it(was actualy prompted to be Nero when attempting to use nero), Still have the problem. So Went down and purchased a new drive and installed that. Same deal, so I installed the NEro it came with, same problem.

Here is what I think is happening, correct me if Im wrong. Nero is not a nessisary program, but rather some fancy looking junk I dont need. Somehow it has modified the way windows works, redirecting stuff throught its programs. I have removed Nero, but no go, Same problem.

I would deal with the guy who built the thing (he is family) but he tends to be a jerk( heck I tried to go through him in the first place but the problem persists) So Ive go an lighning fast computer (8 gig ram) which is basicly good for nothing.

[Brinstar]

Sorry for all the edits...mind on the fritz for some reason tonight...cleaned it up a bit.

Windows XP comes with limited CD burning capabilities. With no additional software, you can burn files to a CD. With Windows Media Player (may need to update your version), you can burn music CDs as well. To my knowledge, XP does not come with DVD burning capability. Versions of windows prior to XP do not have any built in burning capability.

The advantages of Nero or other similar products is the added features that allow you to burn DVDs, more easily make copies of CDs, burn ISO's, use re-writeable CDs, etc. If all you will be doing is burning data and music CDs, you can ditch Nero, but if you want to do anything more advanced, hang onto it, or find something else.

From your description, it sounds like you are using the native XP burning method (drag and drop, and click the baloon). Doesn't sound like you are even using Nero at all in the process. When you do it your way does the Nero logo ever show up? Try manually running Nero and following the instructions rather than dragging and dropping the files. If that works, the drive is connected and working properly.

Also, if you have the model of your CD drive, you can look online to see if other people are having compatibility issues with XP burning. To find out, go to your control panel, go into administratve tools, and click "Computer Management" (or you can right click "My Computer" and click "Manage"). Once you're in the Computer Management, click Device Manager in the left panel. Now, in the right panel, expand "DVD/CD-ROM drives"). Should display the name of the device.

[Al Ray]

I should clarify, Im not interested in copying anything more than files to the CD, It just happens to be a DVD player as well, also dula layer. The drive itself works fine, so did the other brand one before it. Nero works, somtimes. The problem we initialy had was that nero becomes "corrupted" (nero comes up with an error) and then Im dead in the wwater. Now this new version of nero has not become corrupted yet, but niether did the other one for a week or so. I cant figure out why it became corrupted, but Im thinging it has to do with the external zip drives software. Ive removed the zip drive/software for the time being, Only reason it would need to come back is to retrive an old old old file(s) (not likely). Like I said, on this last reload it is "working" but I still cant use Windows to put files on the CD I must use Nero. The truely upsetting part is that when I remove Nero, I still cant use the standard windows function, I even downloaded a tool from nero to compleatly remove nero and its componients (that might also be why Nero is working at the moment). However windows still would not work as it should.

To sum up, for the time being, I can copy files, and read them, ect. I belive I know why its not working (nero changes some path or something and doesnt bother to change it back upon removal) However I have no Idea how to fix it. Ive got an email in to the manufacture of the drive, as I feel they will be more likely to help me than Nero would.

On a side note. It seems I get more and more disgusted with software companies each year.

[mike31c]

** Do you have the current drivers for the drive itself? Some components and pc makers use "custom" software instead of the basic XP crapware.

** Is it "enabled" to write cd's?

go to My Computer and (EDIT: Left click) -->
Right click the Drive and select properties -->
Under "recording" tab (if it exists)
Click box marked "Enable CD recording on this drive

[z1p101]

I wish I could help you but it is something that is hard to do unless you are sitting there working on the machine or it is a problem that you have encountered before.

All I can tell you is that NERO is a top shelf product and I would get the family member to look at it if I were you.

Also, try what the last poster suggested and in NERO choose make data CD and drag and drop there. See if that works.

[Azzy]

Well, 2 programs to help out.

1 will let you delete and clear out any files that XP may be holding because it thinks you are burning them to CD.

UNLOCKER 1.8.5 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB

Second is a pretty nice and simple CDR / DVDR program.

CDBurnerXP Pro - free burning solution |Home / News

Both are free, and I use the burning program almost every day.

[Kindred]

a- Nero is a actually a great product.
b- it IS necessary, GOOD cd/dvd burning is not native to XP
c- typically burning to a cd/dvd can not be done in the typical drag-drop fashion as magnetic media. The functionality you're using is called "drag to disk" it's an optional module that makes it APPEAR as simple as drag/drop. Several burning packages offer this, and in my experience none of them work all that well.

My suggestion is to launch the full Nero interface (usually called "Burning ROM" in most flavors of Nero). Make a fews test burns from there, try different speeds, etc. Failures in that module will give you some more useful error messages.

[Azzy]

Steve, check out the link I posted above, everything that nero does, except the video and drag-to-disk stuff.

And it is free.