CD won’t write

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When I try to write to a new, blank CD, I get the message that I must first erase it. But there is nothing to erase! I can drag a file to the CD and erase that so the drive appears to be ok. There is no ERASE THIS DISC function on the toolbar: is that clue to my problem!?

Actually, I was trying to create a System Repair Disc so this is very frustrating.

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Try a different disk. Also, try the original disk in a different CD drive.

This seems like an obvious question: is the drive a CD/DVD writer or just a CD/DVD reader?

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I assume its a r/w disk. Any capable burning program has an erase function for r/w disks. Download and run CD burner XP or Burnawre Free. Be careful on the installs to uncheck additional crapware that is prechecked. You have to select the custom install radio button in the Burnaware install.

Jerry

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Mr Jim,
I tried several brand new CD-RW discs but I only have one drive. Device Manager tells me that the drive is a PLDS DVD-RW DH16ACSH. I believe this is ACER-brand hardware, with a SATA interface, supporting writing onto DVD-media: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW.

Jerry,
I can drag files to the CD, they are there ok and I can delete them with the keyboard delete button. My problem seems to be to do with the Windows 7 Back-up & Restore function thinking it finds something on the CD.
I’ll keep your suggestion in mind but I’m loath to install another application until I’m sure the problem is not the CDs or my hardware.

Thanks, both, but are there any more ideas out there? Has any one seen this before?

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I can drag files to the CD, they are there ok and I can delete them with the keyboard delete button. My problem seems to be to do with the Windows 7 Back-up & Restore function thinking it finds something on the CD.

I was intrigued, and (having never tried CD-RW discs on my Win-7 pc), decided to give it a go. After much too-ing and fro-ing, I may have the answer: When you first try to access a blank CD-RW, Win7 asks you whether you want to use it (i) like a USB drive, or (ii) with a CD/DVD player (Mastered). If you select USB-mode, you can copy files to and erase files from the disc (as you are apparently able to do). If you choose Mastered, you can copy to (a 2-stage process: copy to the ‘waiting area’, then burn to disk), but not delete from the disc.

So I selected ‘USB’ mode, copied a few files and deleted them, then tried the Backup program – it ran for a bit, then asked me to insert a blank DVD (it said DVD), even though I had the ‘USB’-mode empty disc in the drive. It seems that provided you just click ‘OK’ (or whatever) it will continue, but maybe you stopped at this stage?

I thought I’d try ‘mastered’ mode, so did an ‘erase all’ using a rt-click, so that when I next tried to open the drive it let me choose the mode again (without formatting). I then repeated the backup, and after the obligatory wait, it again asked me to insert a blank disc – but this time hitting OK did not work – it asked if I wanted to format the disk. So I let it start, and its still doing it now… it has now finished, so…

I tried copying some files to the disk and then deleting them, which worked OK, so it (the format) put it into ‘USB’ mode. Running the backup again with a single file left on the disc caused it to barf – it refused to continue until I put a blank disk in – I opened up an explorer window to delete the file (while the backup was waiting), then the backup continued to completion.

So although it sounds like your disk is in ‘USB’ mode, perhaps you have some hidden files on it? Try a rt-click on the drive and select ‘erase disk’ and have another go.

Interestingly, I put the disk in my XP pc, fully expecting to be unable to read the data, as I expected it to be in ‘USB’ mode, which I imagined was similar to Roxio’s ‘Direct CD’ – but the data is fully readable, and the properties show the disk uses the UDF file system. I was going to caution against using the backup system on CDs, expecting to find it creates something other OS’s can’t read, but that objection has gone.

However, the whole process was horribly slow, so I recommend you backup to a USB hard drive!

Hope that helps!

PS Another remote possibility is that you do have the disk in ‘mastered’ format, but when you talk about ‘copying to’ and ‘deleteing from’ the disk, you are actually working on the files waiting to be burned to the CD (apologies if this insults your knowledge/intelligence). If you can read the files off the CD with another pc, then they are definitely on it.

PPS If all else fails, try a disc format to clear any invisible junk off it.

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I use CD Burner XP. Very good program.

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I notice you are using CD-RW discs. Is it possible that Windows 7 Back-up & Restore will not play nice with RW discs and wants you to use write-only discs?

I readlily admit this is a wild guess on my part.

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