Trying to save photos to a CD

peat

I've been trying to save photos to a CD without any sucess. It occured to me that my system may only have a CD player not a writer. Belarc Advisor lists the equipment as HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4481B [CD-ROM drive]

Can anyone advise?

Conor_3

Its a LG DVD/CDRW so should write to CDR and rewriteable CDRs.

What methods are you using to try and save them to CDRW?

May I suggest CDBurner XP which is an excellent freeware CD writing program?
http://cdburnerxp.se/

peat

I was just trying to use the windows wizard but it does not seem to recognise the tescos CD-R's 52x 700MB or Verbatim CD-RW 8x-10x or Bulkpaq 4xDVD-R

peat

I got a bit further with my latest attempt using a tesco CD-R.
This time I got :- "There was an error in the writing process. The disc you have attempted to write may no longer be usable"

basmic

If that drive is as old as I think it is, then I'd recommend buying a new one - I've seen decent DVD writers at £20, so I bet CD writers can be had for £10-15 easily. :eek:

I suspect your problem is a case of your CD writer not being able to detect what type of disc you're putting it in - a typical case of this is, is when you put a CD-RW in the drive and it spends an eternity trying to read it before you eventually give up and eject it.

Now you could try two things - ideally both, for maximum chance of success.
1) Update the drive's firmware.
This might not be too easy, because it seems there are a few variations on the GCC-4481B - ie: made by different manufacturers. Couple this with the fact it's an old drive, it might not be too easy to find the firmware.

2) Clean the drive's lens with a CD cleaner - if it's as old as I think it is, then really you should give it a clean anyway.
Has to be worth a try, but bear in mind there is a slight risk factor involved with CD cleaners - so don't buy the cheapest and nastiest one you can find.

peat

Simplest solution in the short term - I'll save the photos onto a pen drive and burn them to aCD at work. Thanks for the advice, I just thought I might be doing something stupid.

Donnie

Drives are as cheap as chips these days. Good idea to replace yours, as you will have DVD and DVD Video burning capability. Here is one for £13.99.

basmic

I'm going to stick my oar in, and recommend this drive: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149318

I've had a Pioneer DVD writer for a good 3 years now, and it's still going strong. It's yet to turn it's nose at a disc I want to burn onto.

Donnie

basmic wrote: »

I'm going to stick my oar in, and recommend this drive: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149318

I've had a Pioneer DVD writer for a good 3 years now, and it's still going strong. It's yet to turn it's nose at a disc I want to burn onto.

Pioneer is cheaper here.

Conor_3

peat wrote: »

Simplest solution in the short term - I'll save the photos onto a pen drive and burn them to aCD at work. Thanks for the advice, I just thought I might be doing something stupid.

Chances are it just doesn't recognise the Tesco brand of media. Try a well known brand and also check to see if there's a firmware update for the drive as firmware updates typically add support for more brands of media.

Donnie

Conor wrote: »

Chances are it just doesn't recognise the Tesco brand of media. Try a well known brand and also check to see if there's a firmware update for the drive as firmware updates typically add support for more brands of media.

tescos CD-R's 52x 700MB or Verbatim CD-RW 8x-10x or Bulkpaq 4xDVD-R

It's probably a problem with this particular drive. In addition, some OEM drives don't take to firmware updates.

If the OP would like to try updating the firmware(can do no harm), here is LG's latest solution for updating firmware. Download and install.