CD difficulties.....

Emibub

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Nov 2, 2001
Posts
9,246
Loc
Centennial, CO, USA
I am having a difficulty with the computer. It started earlier this week when I was backing up FrameReady. My normal copy and paste to drive E (CD) wouldn't work. It kept saying E:\is not accessible Incorrect function. I contacted HP live support and after discussing it they came up with something that got me running again. Something about DLA being on in order to drag and drop. I never changed anything so I am not quite sure why all of a sudden this happened.

I also asked them to clear up why sometimes when I burn music CD's I don't always get the whole CD. I've had it happen more than once. The CD will just go blank for a minute or so while playing. There is no indication that there is a problem while burning, only when playing. They basically said I had to use the right brand CD's and gave me a list of what not to use. But, I wasn't using the CD's on the list do it didn't really answer my question. But, at that point I had lost interest anyway.....

Today I am attempting to use a data CD and it keeps telling me Please insert a disk in Drive E. But there is a disk in drive E, I keep telling it back. I have tried several CD's and it says the same thing. I can go to my Music jukebox and it will play a music CD with no trouble, so what gives? Any ideas?

I don't think I got much help from the "live support" just thought I'd ask here since there are several computer genius's floating around Grumbleland.
 
Hi Kathy

Are you re-using the same CDRW (re-writable) disc(s) for your backup rotation, or are they fresh CDR one time use cd's each time?

It looks to me like it's having difficulty reading/identifying the blank disc. That could either be caused by bad media or a drive that is starting to fail or dirty.

This is one of those things that will be difficult to troubleshoot. I've had whole spindles of bad cd's before and cd's that died from sitting for a long period of time. They're not in direct sunlight of course, right?

I wish I had a better answer, other than trying a different brand of media. Riteks for DVDR or Memorex for CDR are my suggestions.

Mike
 
Hi Mike, I am using the CD-R one time use CD's. I've done it htis way for over a year. and no problems. I just tried to back up FrmaeReady again just to see if it would work and it alos told me to insert Disk in drive E. I am actully using a batch of CD's that somebody gave me to keep on hand.

This computer is just over a year old but I have had the ongoing problem with burning all along. Maybe the player is the problem all along.

If it is dirty how do you clean it?
 
Kathy, I can tell how NOT to clean it. Do NOT, under any circumstances, use Dust Off or any canned cleaning stuff you might have sitting around. I trashed a CD burner exactly that way when they were still about $500. Now that they're practically free, it's still a chore to replace one.

I'll bet the same CD/DVD cleaning disc you use for home entertainment equipment would work safely to clean the lens on your CD burner.
 
I'm probably a bit over my head here, but I have a stand-alone CD burner.
I once bought a whole pack of blank CD-R's at a really good price.
Got home and tried to record music on one of them, and I got the same error message, or a similar one: "Please insert disc in drive" or "Unable to read disc".
Found out that there are 2 different KINDS of recordable CD's: One is for data only, and is generally used for back-ups, etc.
The other type usually has Music CD-R emblazoned on it somewhere. I really can't remember, but it seems you gotta use music (audio) CD-R's for music only...and Data CD-R's for the 'ones and zeroes' data stuff.
At least that's the way it works on my Phillips CD burner...
Then, of course, you have to FINALIZE to acually get the music in a listenable form. The finalazitation step, on a CD-R makes it permanent, and puts the songs in the proper order..
I do not like RW, or re-writable discs. For music, and I'm afraid I've been cursed with a very discerning ear, they don't sound as good as the non-rewritable ones.
 
David,
I,m using "Record Now" that came with the XP. The problem of the skipped minutes has happened since the very beginning. Also, sometimes when I go to copy a CD it takes forever to copy it. I have wondered if some CD's have some way of scrambling so you can't copy them.

I did try different CD's like Mike suggested this weekend and I did get the chance to back up FrameReady but I had to format the disk which I have never had to do before and it did seem to work. So, maybe the back up problem was bad CD's, but the burning problem seems more significant than that.

I will take Ron's suggestion and clean it. I mean, how much damage could I do? :eek:
 
I have tried "Record Now" that's bundled with XP and found it to be buggy. There are LOTS of software out there for burning but the best I've ever used is "Nero". It checks your hardware and the cd before the burning process starts.
I have been using Nero for a couple of years, upgraded when possible and have not made a coaster since. It's user friendly and well written.

BTW, I have the exact same burner in all of my machines including the one at home. If I don't finalize the cd it can be read and recorded on any one of them. But some times they won't read from different kind of burner until the cd is finalized.
 
Kathy,

I use Record Now also for my shop backup and I did a full backup of the entire FrameReady program on Saturday. It took just under a minute to backup the program with all the data files. I have a bunch of moulding companies on the program now and it still only takes under a minute to backup. I am using XP also so everything should be about the same. I don't know if the processor speed has much to do with burning CD's but I am using a Pentium-4 2.3Ghz processor.

That may give you some gauge to measure how your program is doing. Maybe if you uninstalled Record Now and re-installed it things might go a little faster.

If all else fails, cut a piece of Scotchbrite into the shape of a CD and insert is into your CD player. Run it about 10 minutes or so and your CD player should be clean as a whistle!!

(OK, if that last statement appeared to be a verisimilitude for cleaning a CD player, and you play little Ms. Myrmidon and try this method, you are probably going to lose what little vestige of your "bunnykins" personality that may remain!) :cool:

Framerguy
 
Kathy,

I would be careful about putting anything into a CD drive that might fly apart from centrifugal force. Computer CDs that tout speed multiples spin much faster than music CDs. You could wind up with an interesting mess.

Pat :D :D
 
Framerguy was just kidding


Another vote for NERO. That's what I use too.
 
Originally posted by Mike-L@GTP:
Framerguy was just kidding
Now you tell me........

It never occurred to me to use Record Now to back up data. Yikes, there it is....copy data.....I did that and it worked like a dream. I have always gone to "My computer" and copied and pasted.

Now, as to Nero, what am I looking for? I looked at the website and there are more than one option and more than one price. I do believe my software might be a bit buggy since it has never been perfect. I would like to give Nero a try, but I just need the basics, I don't plan on launching any rockets......
 
Originally posted by CharlesL:
Found out that there are 2 different KINDS of recordable CD's: One is for data only, and is generally used for back-ups, etc.
The other type usually has Music CD-R emblazoned on it somewhere. I really can't remember, but it seems you gotta use music (audio) CD-R's for music only...and Data CD-R's for the 'ones and zeroes' data stuff.
At least that's the way it works on my Phillips CD burner...
I believe that either will work in a computer type CD-Recorder to make any type of CD. I've made hundreds of Music CDs on "Data" CDs. However, audio CD-Recorders - the type that might be integrated with your home audio stereo system - will only record on Music CD-Rs. I understand it is part of the compromise between equipment manufacturers and the music industry - a portion of the price of Music CD-R/RWs goes toward royalties.
 
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