Why won't my computer let me burn onto CD?

jap200

I really hope I am not going to sound too stupid by asking this!

I am trying to be responsible and make back up work and photos onto CDs. The problem is, my CD/DVD drive does not seem to recognise the blank discs.

I am using Philips CD-R 700MB 80min 52Xspeed discs that my husband brought home from work.

I hving looked at the online help Windows XP help and it says that when using "My Pictures" folder, I should see the option "copy to CD" under "picture tasks" on the LHS. - But it is not there - is this because it is not recognising the disk?

When I have inserted a disc and click on the DVD/CD drive in "My Computer", it says "please insert a disc into drive E" - even though I already have. I have tried several discs of the same type and I get the same problem.

Is there a problem with the disc, the computer, or just me?
As you can tell, I am a bit of a novice at this.

Any advice would be gratefully received

panyanpickle

Have u tried using other brands of blank disc, as strange as it sounds not all cd drives recognise every brand of blank on the market

millwalll

To be honest it's xp i think xp burn facility is too complicated you best to have another application to burn to cd with. you can test this by download a trial software of neroburn or another software that allows you to burn cd and see if that works

billy_the_kid_2

I had a similar problem. I had been buring CDs with no problem utill I installed Nero Backitup. This seemd to hijack the xp burn facility (also provided by nero I believe) and gave me the 'please install disc' error each time.

I installed Nero Burn and now burn through this software with no problems.

jap200

Thanks for the advice so far

Also - this may be a really daft question - but here goes:

Could it be that my computer does not have a cd burning function - is this something that comes as standard build into computers - how can I tell?

This computer was supplied by the company I work for (I work from home), so I do have IT support I can call upon. I did not want to ask them these questions and have them all laughing at me in the office. I would be in a happier position if I was simply able to tell them what the problem is - once I have sorted out that it is not something really obvious that I am just doing wrong.

panyanpickle

how new/old is it? most new pc's come with re-writers as standard, look on the cd drawer to see what it says.

jap200

I have an Acer Veriton 6800 - less than a year old. There is nothing written on the cd drawer

According to the Acer website, this model has a DVD-RW Drive. Should I be using DVDs instead of CDs - is this my problem?

BillScarab

I think XP's CD Burning functionality was based on Roxio technology rather than Nero.

Is this the PC you have??

http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Acer_Veriton_PS.680E6.U03/version-1.asp

If it is, there's no mention of a CD or DVD rewriter it justs says it can read DVD's and CD's.

Have a look at the DVD drive in device manager and let us know what model it says you have, we may be able to tell more from that

panyanpickle

Go into my computer and right click on dvd drive, then on properties and make sure "windows burning" is switched on. Even if it`s a dvd-rw drive, you can use cd rw`s as well.

jap200

BillScarab wrote:

I think XP's CD Burning functionality was based on Roxio technology rather than Nero.

Is this the PC you have??

http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Acer_Veriton_PS.680E6.U03/version-1.asp

If it is, there's no mention of a CD or DVD rewriter it justs says it can read DVD's and CD's.

Have a look at the DVD drive in device manager and let us know what model it says you have, we may be able to tell more from that

Yes - this looks like the right PC in the link
I'm not sure what you mean by "look at the DVD drive in device manager". If I follow the instructions in 'panyanpickle's' post below, there is no option to swich on "windows burning" - indeed there is no mention of burning at all. Under the 'general' type it simply says Type: "CD drive"

Does this mean that it can only read CDs, but not write them - if so, it would explain my problems - although why I would have been given a computer than does not enable me to make back-up CDs is rather strange.

panyanpickle

if thats all it says then it's not a re-writer it would be a read only drive.
Tell your company to give you new pc lol