Which CD to use for what???

susi

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but its techie for me :-0 Whenever I try to make a CD I never seem to get the right disc to copy on. I am always told its not compatable or something equally as irritating. I just
tried to copy one on my uncles computer, the blanks he had were DVD-R and we tried to put on some photos which have music attached to them from his Kodak program. It wouldnt accept the blank disc to copy. Can someone tell me which discs are used for what eg CD-R CD-RW DVD-R DVD-RW all I know is that the RW means you should be able to re write over whats already on there is that correct???

KingL

A CD (compact data disc) holds 700MB of data.

A DVD is newer and (usually) holds about 7 times more data.

Very old computers may contain a disc drive that only reads from CDs (not DVDs). Slightly newer computers may contain a drive that can read from and write to (save data on) CDs (but not DVDs). Newer still computers might have a drive that will read and write to a CD but only read from (and not write to) a DVD. Newest computers will read and write to both CDs and DVDs.

If you are trying to write (save) to a DVD with a machine that won't write to DVDs then you won't get anywhere.

Go to my computer, right click on the (cd or DVD) drive, select properties then the hardware tab and post back what it says.

triggerhappy_2

'R' means it can be written to once only, 'RW' means it can be written to many times.

The problem may be which type of DVD you are trying to write to. Look on the packet of the DVD and it should tell you whether it's DVD-R or DVD+R. If your uncles computer is old then it's likely to need DVD-R disks. If it's newer it may have a DVD±R drive (which can handle both types of disk), in which case that isn't the problem.

Can you have a look at the drive in the computer? It should say something on the front about whether it is DVD-R, DVD+R or DVD±R.

susi

Thank you both, I will contact him tonight as I am not able to access his computer (we were staying with him over the weekend) will get back to you, thanks for answering

KingL

Also, if he has previously had success using a particular type of disc, but it has recently stopped working, then it might be that the little lens in the drive needs a clean. If he can see something that looks like a 3mm glass ball, a gentle wipe with a bit of kitchen towel might restore it to health.