My new laptop has windows XP home edition.

When I try to write a file to CD the file is written to the "waiting to be written" function of XP , but when I then try to "write to CD" the laptop does not think there is a disk in the cd drive - which there is , and therefore will not write the file to disc.

This is the first time I have tried to do this on this laptop. The CD is a RW and so is the drive.

The laptop can read files from the CD drive OK.

My desktop is running Windows XP Pro and I don't have any problems writing to the same CD as I previously had inserted in the laptop CD drive.

Any idea's? Could it be a user permissions problem?

I've seen this before on XP Home - my PC at home did it and got horribly confused about whether the disk was in or not. Sorry - I don't have a solution. In the end I used a copy of Nero that was already pre-installed on the PC and that got round the problem.

Hmmm. Are you using a different type of disc now, eg different manufacturer. some cds are for certain things only and your cd drive may not be picking them up. Try a different type of cd. Other than that go with what Fen said and get yourself a copy of Nero, and give that a try.

ditto with the problem and suggested solution.

use nero express which suits my needs just fine.

Hmmm. Are you using a different type of disc now, eg different manufacturer. some cds are for certain things only and your cd drive may not be picking them up. Try a different type of cd. Other than that go with what Fen said and get yourself a copy of Nero, and give that a try.

I'm using TDK CD-RW discs - they have never caused me a problem on any other PC's.

I've got a copy of some Roxio CD burning software. I'll load that up and give that a try. (Problem is I think Microsoft bought out Roxio and that now the underlying software on XP - I could be wrong)

Hmm...Roxios not as good as Nero...

Rob.

Try windows update; there was a fix for cd burning a couple of months ago.

Personally I use Nero 5.5.9 as it does everything and the anti piracy stuff for wasn't implemented then.

I forgot to mention the laptop has a DVD+RW drive where as the desktop has a CD RW drive - could the CD RW discs be incompatable with the DVD+RW (even though this drive can read them?) - even though I am not trying to durn a dvd?

If so what format discs do I now need?

DVD+RW should be able to read and write any data CD...

Rob.

Get Nero if that does not work then the drive is prob faulty.

Yeah if its a DVD-RW then it should do everything. Would on a normal PC anway. Cant see why it would be any different on a laptop.

I've got Roxio and I sort of know my way round it and it's fine. Something that has confused me before though is if you are burning data files you have to format the disc (like floppys). This is specific to data, not CD copying or music etc. The software with XP doesn't ask you to do this. Try right clicking the drive with the CD in and see if there is an option to format.

The whole burning thing is best viewed as a bit of a lottery IMO. If it works, bonus!

While we're on the subject, if I burn a load of eg Word files to a CD-R then move the disc to another PC and transfer the contents into eg My Documents, why are they all 'read only'? I have to manually change them so they can be further added to etc.

CD-ROM's are, by definition, read-only.

So the file permissions change when it's put on a CD, and it doesn't "remember" previous permissions...

Rob.

CD-ROM's are' date=' by definition, read-only.

So the file permissions change when it's put on a CD, and it doesn't "remember" previous permissions...

Rob.[/quote']

Ah.

And what do you reckon about the formatting bit?

Frankly bizarre...not something I've come across, but then I stick to Nero...

Rob.

Ah.

And what do you reckon about the formatting bit?

All to do with packet writing - if you want to add, delete and modify files one at a time the disc will need formatting. If you have all the files you want on the disc ready and waiting, it is better to write them all at once using session writing (like nero) rather than packet writing (like Roxio (Adaptec) DirectCD) because you will save disc space, time and stress.

All to do with packet writing - if you want to add, delete and modify files one at a time the disc will need formatting.

If I need to format the disc how does that explain why the very same disc works when I write to it with a single file from my desktop?

(I'll give the disc formatting a try though)

Nero definitely seems to work better on XP than Roxio. Roxio came installed on my girlfriends Dell pc, and nearly killed it. Took it off and we use Nero now, with little or no problem.

If I need to format the disc how does that explain why the very same disc works when I write to it with a single file from my desktop?

(I'll give the disc formatting a try though)

I think the WindowsXP built-in system is a fudge. Packet writing was invented for "drive letter access" (using a CD as if it were a floppy disk' date=' this method requires formatting) but WindowsXP stores the files you want written to disk in a temporary folder and then when you actually write them it starts a whole new session, links it to the previous session and then closes the session (but not the disk).

You might find the information you're after here: [url']http://www.cdrfaq.org[/url]