XP in-built CD burning appears to work, but resulting CD is unusable - NOT a F.A.Q.!
Anomolos
Hi,
OK, I've looked EVERYWHERE--Google, these groups, been searching
for days, and can't find an answer for my problem (it's
definitely not a frequently asked question). Please help!!
I have Windows XP Pro and a Samsung SW-212B CD-R/RW drive
connected to my machine via a Generic USB 2.0 adapter card, hub,
and IDE-->USB 2.0 external drive enclosure. This setup worked
fine for months, in fact when I first installed it XP detected
and installed all the hardware without a glitch.
However, at some point the XP in-built CD burning software went
haywire and now when I burn a CD, the XP CD burning wizard
behaves exactly as before and appears to perform a successful
burn. The resulting disc, however, is unusable. In Explorer,
at the point when the file icons normally change from temporary
shortcuts to the actual files on the CD, instead all
files/shortcuts disappear and the disc again appears empty.
If I put the disc in a different, non-burning drive, I get the
following error:
"Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be
corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible
with Windows."
All other CD burning programs (Nero, DiscJuggler, CDRWin et al)
still work fine, and the drive can still read any disc without
problems. This problem is solely associated with the XP's in-
built CD burning software.
More details: The Properties page of a bad disc has the
following statistics:
----------
Type: CD Drive
File system: RAW
Used space: 0 bytes 0 bytes
Free space: 712,994,816 bytes 679 MB
Capacity: 712,994,816 bytes 679 MB
----------
Since the disc appears to still be blank to XP, it will let me
attempt to burn more files on the disc. However, when the
wizard begins writing, I get the following error:
----------
Cannot complete the CD Writing Wizard
There was an error in the writing process. The disc you have
attempted to write may no longer be usable.
----------
It gets weirder: depending on the Multisession settings I
choose, I can burn additional files onto the bad CD using Nero
(presumably another session). This does not recover the files
previously burned using the XP in-built burning software; only
the files explicitly burned in Nero are available. At this
point, I can again run the XP in-built burning software, and it
behaves as before: again it appears to run successfully, but
when it is finished there are no available files on the disc
(i.e. the files burned by Nero are rendered unavailable).
I posted this question a few days ago and "James W. Glass"
suggested that I uninstall/reinstall my USB 2.0 adapter card. I
followed his advice, uninstalling the adapter card (in fact,
everything in the "usb" section) first from device manager, then
by physically pulling the card. I then reinstalled each piece
(card, hub, enclosure/drive), rebooting before hooking up each
new piece. Needless to say, this did not resolve the issue.
Microsoft has a patch for "inconsistent" burning using the in-
built software, but it won't install on my system since I have
all of the latest updates, including SP1. (When I go to Windows
Update, there are no updates available because I keep my machine
current.)
Please advise! TIA!
Anomolos
Andy Vines
Nero and InCD.
"Anomolos" <anom...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9367ED50E6AAE...@207.46.248.16...
Alex Nichol
>If I put the disc in a different, non-burning drive, I get the
>following error:
>
>"Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be
>corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible
>with Windows."
>
>All other CD burning programs (Nero, DiscJuggler, CDRWin et al)
>still work fine, and the drive can still read any disc without
>problems. This problem is solely associated with the XP's in-
>built CD burning software.
Sometimes the inbuilt burning hangs in its final phase - it is fatal to
end it or eject the drive until it finishes and asks if you want to burn
a second copy. If you have other software, use that instead
--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
Bournemouth, U.K. Al...@mvps.org
Al Cellier
I too have been struggling with the promised XP "built-in burn" capability.
At first I thought it failed to work because I had an external rather than
internal CDRW drive. Today, I mounted an internal CDRW with equally dismal
results. I notice that the new drive fails to notify me of the options
available when a disk is inserted, even though I've selected that in
Properties.
Brand new disks are seen by the wizard as unusable, as in your same error
message. I have burned a couple disks with the external using NERO. I also
keep getting these reminders that there are "files ready to burn" even when
the list is empty.
My P4 primary drive is partitioned and dual-boot, with 98SE on C, XP on D,
and the swap on G. It appears that the "ready for burn" files are placed on
G (found using Norton tool). CDRW is Y, DVD-CD is Z (avoids these letters
changing).
I'm thinking that I may have unknowingly violated some unknown rule of
adequate space for this function. I can't find any reference as to how much
disk space XP needs to reserve, nor where. Have you gotten any more data on
the issue?
There seems to be very little information out there about this capability
(which my new Mac G4 performs flawlessly).
... Al
Alex Nichol
>Brand new disks are seen by the wizard as unusable, as in your same error
>message. I have burned a couple disks with the external using NERO. I also
>keep getting these reminders that there are "files ready to burn" even when
>the list is empty.
>
>My P4 primary drive is partitioned and dual-boot, with 98SE on C, XP on D,
>and the swap on G. It appears that the "ready for burn" files are placed on
>G (found using Norton tool). CDRW is Y, DVD-CD is Z (avoids these letters
>changing).
>
>I'm thinking that I may have unknowingly violated some unknown rule of
>adequate space for this function. I can't find any reference as to how much
>disk space XP needs to reserve, nor where. Have you gotten any more data on
>the issue?
The inbuilt burning is very restricted anyway, and only stashes up files
in a convenient way (one copy) and then makes an image of an IOS/Joliet
track ) second copy) to burn to the CD. So you need a lot od free disk
space. There are some drives it just will not work on and if it does
not work with yours I would cut losses. It was bought in from Roxio,
and was I think a mistake. As you have Nero, use that - the end result
is the same and it is more reliable