MY PC CANT SEE BLANK DVD

[Rory Whitfeld]

Hello,
I was wanting to copy photos onto DVD. When i insert the blank DVD into the DVD writer, it displays Total size = o bytes, free space = 0 bytes. It also changes the name of the drive from "DVD ram drive (E" to "CD drive (E. The DVD drive I'm using is an LG super multi and I'm running Windows XP Pro Service pack 2. I've tried DVD +R, DVD -R, and DVD +RW (all 4X speed).
I can, however, write to CDs and can also read DVDs with no problem. In fact if I take the same DVD disc, write to it on another PC, then put the disc back in my PC, It displays "bytes used 13,567 bytes" (or whatever) and "free space = o bytes). The PC is only a couple of months old.
I have searched the internet for a solution and found similar problems explained but NO solutions. HELP!!!
Rory

 

[COLGeek]

If I understand correctly, your DVD Writer will read and write to CD media, but will only read (not write) to DVD media. Is that correct?

If that is correct, your DVD writer likely has a bad DVD laser (yes, there are 2 different lasers for writing CDs and DVDs of different wavelengths). You may have something (like a dust ball) causing the problem. More likely, you just need to replace the DVD writer.

BTW, I notice that you are running XP SP2. You really should update to SP3 and apply all of the other patches/updates as well to increase stability and reduce vulnerability of your system.

Good luck!