Why can't I copy files onto a CD or DVD?

[Louise Sellers]

I'm finding I have a problem with this on every PC that I use. My Western
Digital hard drive at home has died and I want to use DVDs to back up various
files. I can get them into the DVD drive folder, but when I say burn I get a
message saying "There is no disc in the drive". This happens with CDs as
well. I have tried on my Sony Vaio at home, my Dell Inspiron at work and the
same thing happens. All I wnt to do is copy files onto a DVD, no conversion,
just somewhere to store the files. Surely this must be possible. What is the
point of having the facility to write to CD/DVD otherwise?

Please help - I really don't want to install the Nero suite for such a
simple task.

P.S. I'm running Windows XP Pro everywhere.

 

[Bill Sharpe]

I'm finding I have a problem with this on every PC that I use. My Western
Digital hard drive at home has died and I want to use DVDs to back up various
files. I can get them into the DVD drive folder, but when I say burn I get a
message saying "There is no disc in the drive". This happens with CDs as
well. I have tried on my Sony Vaio at home, my Dell Inspiron at work and the
same thing happens. All I wnt to do is copy files onto a DVD, no conversion,
just somewhere to store the files. Surely this must be possible. What is the
point of having the facility to write to CD/DVD otherwise?

Please help - I really don't want to install the Nero suite for such a
simple task.

P.S. I'm running Windows XP Pro everywhere.

When you say "when I say burn", just what are you doing? Go to Windows
Help and Support and type in "burn CD" in the search box. Look at both
the first task and the overview tips article. That search also brings up
several MS KB articles, which may help.

At any rate there is a free application, CDBurnerXP, available at
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ that works pretty well. Despite the name, it
also works on DVD's.

 

[sgopus]

Try this:

using windows explorer cruise to the cd drive, right click and select
properties, select the recording tab and ensure the enable cdburning is
checked.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Try this:

using windows explorer cruise to the cd drive, right click and select
properties, select the recording tab and ensure the enable cdburning is
checked.

The OP is trying to _COPY_ to DVD/CD, and that cannot be done without
installing InCD.

To burn to CD, your answer was correct.

To burn to DVD... it was wrong. Third Party software is needed.

 

[Wayne]

Louise, it could be that your dvd drive is bad. I had mine go out three weeks
ago. When I clicked on burn the cd rom drive would open up. It would also
say, "put in a blank disk". When I would put one in it still would not
recognize the disc. I put in a new LG drive I had bought at Sams Club for
$50.00 and that took care of my problem.