CD/DVD Drive/Writer Problems: Fixing Problems with CD and DVD Drives - Page 1

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CD/DVD DRIVE PROBLEMS - PAGE 1

Visit the Disk Drives section of this site for information on internal and external hard disk drives and CD/DVD drives/writers.

Click the relevant link below to go to that Q&A article. Use your browser's Back button to backtrack.

Some of the fixes provided here require the editing of the Windows Registry. Remember, you should have a restorable backup of your computer's system before you attempt to edit the Registry in case doing so miscarries and renders the computer unbootable.

1. - Information on CD/DVD/Blu-ray optical drive/writer problems in the Microsoft Knowledge Base

2. - I can't watch DVD movies on my Windows XP laptop/notebook computer

3. - How can I remove the DRM copy protection on the music tracks that I purchased from Nokia so that I can play them on an iPod and burn them to a CD/DVD disc?

4. - The DVD drive/writer of my laptop PC/computer won't write to DVD-R/DVD+R discs

5. - When some burned DVDs are played the picture becomes pixilated and the DVD drive/DVD player stops playing

6. - How do I format rewritable CD/DVD discs and erase the files saved on re-recorable/rewritable CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD RAM and Blu-ray BD-RE discs in Windows XP and Windows Vista?

7. - How can I replace my Dell Inspiron 6000/6400/9200/9300/E1405/E1505 laptop/notebook PC's DVD drive/writer?

8. - DVD movie problem: my computer and the DVD drive work properly, but the sound is crackly and the picture is jerky

9. - Reinstalling a DVD decoder: My Dell Inspiron PC has stopped recognising (US: recognizing) DVDs

10. - When I plug my memory stick/flash drive in a USB port or insert a CD/DVD in the optical drive the window showing the options to display the contents (flash drive) or the window containing the contents (CD/DVD disc) doesn't come up as it used to

11. - How can I disable/turn off the AutoPlay feature in Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 that displays a list of options when I insert a CD or DVD or install a USB flash drive/memory stick?

12. - When I insert a CD in my CD drive a message comes up saying "Please insert disk in drive E:"

13. - My CD/DVD drive/writer won't work after I removed a virus and my CD/DVD burning software

14. - My home CD/DVD player won't play rewritable CD-RW/DVD-RW/DVD+RW discs that my PC's CD/DVD drive/writer can play

15. - How can I drag-and-drop and copy files and folders directly to recordable/rewritable CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs in the same way as I can to a hard disk drive in Windows XP and Windows Vista?

16. - My DVD drive/writer won't write to some recordable DVDs - DVD-R and DVD+R discs - at their rated speed

17. - My Computer in Windows XP does not recognise/recognize my CD/DVD drives, the BIOS does, but the Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark beside each drive's entry

18. - Inserting a blank recordable CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW disc in the CD/DVD writer makes Windows XP lock up

19. - The speed of a CD-RW burn and the quality of the discs?

20. - Why won't my CD/DVD writer burn some types of CD/DVD? - The drive/writer/disc compatibility of CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+R recordable CD/DVD discs

21. - Problems saving a database to CD-R and CD-RW discs

22. - Prevent disc-burning failures : How to avoid buffer underruns and spoiled CDs/DVDs when burning/writing files to recordable CD/DVDs - CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVd+RW discs

23. - How to upgrade your CD/DVD/Blu-ray driver/writer's firmware

24. - Windows XP can only burn read-only files to CD-RW media/discs. How can I edit the files and save them back to the disc?

25. - My Toshiba DVD writer/burner won't write/burn to no-brand DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW media/discs

26. - When ripping audio CDs in iTunes the last track very often is much longer than the actual track, so how can I edit the MP3 file to remove the blank bit?

The speed of a CD-RW burn and the quality of the discs?

Questions

I have purchased a new 40x12x48 CD-RW drive and now I need two questions answered. First, when you buy CD-R and CD-RW media, how does the speed affect the quality of the final burn, especially when burning at higher speeds? - Second, should you use the best quality blank CDs?

Answers

Last question first. - The 10x (or any x specification) is not a designation of quality, but just the recommended burning speed. For instance, a 40x CD can be burned at 40x or lower, but a 10x CD may or may not burn at 12x.

I personally have never experienced any difference in quality when burning a CD at high compared to lower burning speeds. However, sometimes you may need to burn at a lower speed in order to avoid a buffer underrun error. You should go ahead and buy CDs that have high recommended maximum burning speeds (as long as they aren't too overpriced), and just burn them at the maximum recommended speed. CD-Rs and CD-RW discs are so cheap nowadays that everyone can afford to experiment. With CD-RW discs you can erase any faulty burns and redo them, but you will have to throw away any aborted record-once CD-R discs.

Problems saving a database to CD-R and CD-RW discs

Problem

I have created a database with MS Access that is 2MB in size. I used Adaptec's Easy CD Creator - Standard Edition to burn the database to both CD-R and CD-RW discs. But whenever I attempt to open the database from either type of disc, the message "The database K.M.S. is read only" appears. I want to know how you can transfer the database to another computer so that data can be added to it and design changes can be effected.

Solution

Easy CD Creator creates a disc that can be used in the same way as a CD-ROM disc is. CD-ROM discs are read-only, so you can't write to CDs created with Easy CD Creator. Even if you copy the files from the CD to the hard drive, they will be set to read-only. You have to right-click on each file, click Properties, and then uncheck the Read-only box.

However, the Universal Disk Format (UDF) allows you to write to CDs in the same way as you can write to floppy disks, but you need to use software that can use this format. Adaptec's Direct CD is a program that provides this facility. Note that the computer to which you want to transport the database has to have CD-writing software installed on it that can handle UDF.

It is not advisable to access a database directly from a recorded CD, because database software writes to many different records in various parts of the file, and, because of the nature of CDs, accessing the information will be very slow as the blocks of data are copied to the hard drive, Windows finds the relevant data within them, and then brings it to the screen. The best method is to copy all of the files to the hard drive, work on it there, and then copy the modified version back to the CD. This method is especially effective when using CD-R discs that can only be written to once.

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