MetaChat - There's probably a really simple solution, but....

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20 March 2008

There's probably a really simple solution, but.... I can't figure this out. I'm trying to save some .jpgs to my CD drive. But though I've put in a brand new CD, straight out of the package, the computer won't recognize it and keeps telling me to insert a disk in drive D:. Alternatively, I have 2 old disks sitting about with obsolete information on them, but I cannot either delete the info or save anything new to the disk. What am I doing wrong?

post by: Orange Swan at: 13:32 | 15 comments

I'm hopeless at technical stuff sometimes... Sigh.

posted by Orange Swan 20 March | 13:33

Well, is it as CD - R drive? Or an RW?

posted by danf 20 March | 13:45

I begin to see some light...

The old disks I can't write to are Rs.

The new ones that aren't recognized are RWs.

I deduce from that it's a CD-R drive.

posted by Orange Swan 20 March | 14:04

Yeah, you need new R disks. Most likely.

Once an R is burned, it's burned forever.

posted by danf 20 March | 14:05

Ah. I won't be able to order my swan t-shirt today. Oh well...

Thanks, danf!

posted by Orange Swan 20 March | 14:13

If it's not recognizing the RWs, it's probably because there's already stuff on them. You need to dump that stuff before you can write anything else to them.

Insert the disk. Go to My Computer and double-click on the CD drive. Go to File and choose Erase Files. When that's done, you should be able to write new files to the disk.

posted by mudpuppie 20 March | 14:22

I had a DVD writer once that wouldn't recognize some brands of DVD-Rs. It turned out that the drive needed a firmware upgrade to fix. You might want to check the manufacturer's site to see if there's any new firmware for your drive.

posted by DarkForest 20 March | 14:32

It could also be a bum disc. I've had that happen with the cheap spindles, and it was always solved by tossing the bad disk and trying a different one.

posted by rhapsodie 20 March | 14:37

Bad: It could be a sign that the writer is dead.
Good: you can usually pick up a new CDRW drive on geeks.com for under $20

posted by pieisexactlythree 20 March | 15:36

If it's not recognizing the RWs, it's probably because there's already stuff on them. You need to dump that stuff before you can write anything else to them.

The RW was a new CD, fresh out of the packaging.

posted by Orange Swan 20 March | 22:43

I'm just about to ditch my computer. I have a new-to-me computer (only 3 years old, compared to the one I am currently using, which I bought used almost 7 years ago), and I have just been putting off the data transfer.

I went out this afternoon and bought some new R disks, which I need not only for the swan logo but for the move to the new computer.

Just have to see how it goes...

posted by Orange Swan 20 March | 22:46

Well? (I am just curious. . .I usually suck at tech support.)

posted by danf 20 March | 23:29

Arghh. Tried the brand new R disk and my computer won't recognize it either.

posted by Orange Swan 21 March | 08:02

Maybe you need to update the driver?

What OS are you using? And are you using the Windows re-writing software or a third party application? If the windows one, try a third-party application and see if that'll work.

posted by essexjan 21 March | 08:19

Darn. . .OK I got nothing.

posted by danf 21 March | 09:47

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