problem erasing discs

[eddyjack]

Erasing Dvd Rw

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i hope this is in the right section i am having lots of trouble erasing my cd`s and dvd`s everything was working fine a week ago but now i can`t erase anything i have tried tuff disc and datasafe dvd and mitsibishi cd but can`t erase any of them just getting message this disc is not rewritable have used nero8, ashampoo7, and oront burning kit2 ,i was using pioneer111d and thought it was that at fault but today have installed pioneer1112d but with the same result any help would be very much appreciated as this has got me stumped thanks for any help:o

[Sylvander]

Check out the system requirements for the hardware and software.

e.g.
For Ashampoo Burning Studio 2008...
Operating System:
Windows® 2000, Windows® XP, Windows Vista™
For users of Windows® 2000 we recommend Service Pack 2 or later.
As a user of Windows® 2000, Windows® XP you have to be logged in with full administration rights.

Were you then [when it did burn successfully]...
And are you now, still doing this within a Windows user account that has admin privileges?

More from the help files:
Problem
How can I execute the Burning Studio with a user account that does not have Administrator rights? (Windows 2000, XP, 2003)?

Answer
Here are some things that you could try to solve the problem:

First install the Burning Studio using an Administrator account.

The registry value "allocatecdroms" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon must be set to 1.

If entries in the start menu of the individual users are needed then they must be created manually.

I'm using the Pioneer 122D within Win2000Pro in a user account with admin privileges and it works just fine.
The registry value above within this ADMIN account is zero.

[eddyjack]

everything was working great a week ago so i do not think administrative rights will have a lot to do with it because i have not done anything to change it thnx for your input just the same

[Paul Komski]

Is anything else affected? Any difficulty burning data or reading any media?

[eddyjack]

no it won`t burn either just get message cannot burn to this type of disc modify settings of your compilation but i have burnt to these disc`s before with no bother and nothing has been changed by me to alter any settings as far as i know thanks for any help you can give me

[Paul Komski]

It looks to me most likely that the drive itself is either damaged or dirty. If you could swap it into another pc or a known good drive into its place you might well get your answer that way.

[eddyjack]

the drive is brand new i changed it because i thought that was the problem my old drive was a pioneer 111D i replaced it with pioneer 112D and it made no difference still same trouble

[Sylvander]

The clue may be in this...
"cannot burn to this type of disc, modify settings of your compilation"
So what kind of "settings" have been applied that might result in this particular "compilation" being unsuitable for "this type of disk"?
File system chosen? [e.g. ISO 9660 levels 1 and 2, ISO 9660 Windows (Romeo), Joliet and UDF (1.02, 1.5, 2.50, 2.60)]?

How about trying to use a [burning prog included in a] Linux distro on a live CD to try burning and/or erasing?
[The settings on that always start out the same as originally]
See if the hardware works just fine with that.

[Paul Komski]

Sorry - completely missed that you had changed the drive.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Presumably you can read from CDs/DVDs or is that banjaxed as well?

Sylvander's suggestion of trying maybe k3b from a Knoppix CD (http://www.elearnit.de/knoppix/docs/tutorial/english/k3b.html) would take Windows out of the equation if it too failed to work and we would then be looking at the underlying hardware, BIOS, DMA mode and even the power and data connections to the drive.

Finally, for now anyway, does Device Manger report any problems?

[eddyjack]

my DVD-RW can play music and movies so it seems to be reading the DVD`S ok but just will not burn or erase it`s got me beat