Problem Reading/Writing CDs

[Ian]

there are DVD-RW CDs and I did say I made a mistake in that I use DVD+RW CDs they have 4.7 Gb of memory and are rewritable, I can take a picture if you don't believe me.

I know what you mean, but a DVD is not and never a CD

A CD is a Compact Disc, a DVD is a Digital Versitile Disc - both are round and shiney silver discs that look the same, but they are 2 different things. I know exactly what you mean from your posts, but it's important not to get things confused as they both function differently in your computer. A DVD drive can play both CDs and DVDs, but a CD drive can only play CDs. One or both of these could be the problem, that's why there are lots of posts trying to explain this - as they work differently.

So, the question is - are you trying to drag and drop files to a DVD in Windows XP? If so, you can't do this without extra software. If you are trying to drag and drop files to a CD this should work without any extra software. It is obvious that you are using a DVD (as they come in 4.7GB sizes, and CDs do not) - therefore you can't drag and drop in Windows Explorer without extra software.

If you have been dragging and dropping files in the past, either you were using CDs and not DVDs, or you had some software installed at the time that can do this.

This free software can burn CDs and DVDs (I don't know if it does drag and drop in Explorer though): http://cdburnerxp.se/

If you are having problems playing DVD video files too, then it's likely you'll need a DVD codec/player like JaLing and Waynos_Face suggested : i.e. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

 

[skylark008]

i installed the k lite pack and I am now able to play DVDs with WMP and with the Media Center; however, I still can't drag-and-drop files. so that's half of my problem, thank you.

 

[skylark008]

I know what you mean, but a DVD is not and never a CD

A CD is a Compact Disc, a DVD is a Digital Versitile Disc - both are round and shiney silver discs that look the same, but they are 2 different things. I know exactly what you mean from your posts, but it's important not to get things confused as they both function differently in your computer. A DVD drive can play both CDs and DVDs, but a CD drive can only play CDs. One or both of these could be the problem, that's why there are lots of posts trying to explain this - as they work differently.

So, the question is - are you trying to drag and drop files to a DVD in Windows XP? If so, you can't do this without extra software. If you are trying to drag and drop files to a CD this should work without any extra software. It is obvious that you are using a DVD (as they come in 4.7GB sizes, and CDs do not) - therefore you can't drag and drop in Windows Explorer without extra software.

If you have been dragging and dropping files in the past, either you were using CDs and not DVDs, or you had some software installed at the time that can do this.

In my first post I named the exact drive I had, I guess it's a DVD drive because I can play both. Since the whole CD/DVD still confuses me and although I know the difference I still have a hard time differentiating them since they both do the same job with DVD+RW being rewritable and having more memory. Before the hard drive was erased I really was able to drag-and-drop files to a DVD+RW disk. I never installed any extra software to allow me to do this, I've just always been able to. I've been under the impression that extra software to write to DVDs requires you do it in a program and not drag-and-drop, that's what I'm worried about. So, anything I was able to do before (with writing to DVDs) came with my computer or whatever, I just don't know what it is. I've always figured and said that whatever allowed me to drag-and-drop to DVDs had something to do with my hard drive.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Well thats a bit of good news that you can play dvds now, install the burn software that ian has put a link to, these will enable you to burn dvd and cd.

Do you have any of the disks that came with your PC?

What is the model or product number of your PC cause then we can probably find what software came with it. Probably something from Dell.

 

[JaLing]

DVDs are bigger than CDs. General rule... if it holds more than 800Mb its not a CD. (I say 800 because CDs can occasionally be over-burnt or compress stamped)

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question61.htm

That link explained the difference between CDs and DVDs.
InDVD allows you to drag and drop. Dells usually come with Roxio InDVD.