Whither the data on my DVDs?

July 6, 2007 2:17 PM

["Halp!!eleventyone! Diagnose my computer troubles from far far away" filter]: Why does my DVD-+R drive show up on the computer, let me apparently record, burn and/or write data to the disc, and close the session, but not actually do any of those things?

I want to burn some large video files to DVD. The files are perfectly playable on the computer, they can be copied and moved via ethernet connection, but when I try to burn them to disc, strangeness happens.

Doesn't matter if I use name brand Nero Suite that came with the drive, third party burners, or drag and drop in My Computer: it will pretend to burn the disc, show progress, even erase/format the disc before getting down to business, but it will not, you know, actually burn the file. Everything looks fine, until you eject and reinsert, at which point the computer insists there's nothing on the disc.

Doesn't matter if I try to create video DVDs or just data DVDs. Blinkenlights, whirr whirr, look at me go, and then nada. Nothing on the disc.

I've tried DVD+R, DVD-R, in all the various combinations and permutations with different burning software sets. Made sure the drivers were up to date and checked the versions of the firmware. All check out. Even went out and picked up a new burner. Same thing. Which makes me think it's a problem with windows.

OS: XP Home SP2
software: Nero Express Suite, CD Burner XP Pro 3
hardware: Samsung DVD Writemaster SH-S182D

anything jump out at anybody? Cuz right now this thing just makes shiny coasters. This used to work, though in fairness I haven't used the burner in the better part of a year. I'm about to just nuke from orbit and reinstall (that panacea of windows owners).

posted by yggdrasil to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Nero has a 'simulation' checkbox on the Burn tab of the Burn Compilation dialog box. Make sure that is clear.
posted by trinity8-director at 2:43 PM on July 6, 2007

with burners being very cheap for desktop PCs, mightn't you consider replacing the drive before re-installing the OS?

For clarity: Are you saying the burn process proceeds totally normally, including an appropriate time spent writing the data, but the resultant disks have nothing on them? Do the backs of the discs show a used portion, or do they remain blank?

Are you having this problem with a specific video file, or different video files?

Have you tried reading the discs you burn in another PC/player? I've heard of burners that burn, but don't read due to some error.
posted by chudmonkey at 3:47 PM on July 6, 2007

Have you tried burning a small file <1 00 megs to make sure your burner is working.br>
are your files >2gb in size? Most data DVDs are burned with an ISO format that is reminiscent of FAT32 and won't permit a larger than 2gb to be written.
posted by filmgeek at 5:49 AM on July 7, 2007

you could be writing to a virtual drive or a virtual disk.
re-check your default burner settings and make sure the burner is checked, not a virtual driver or an iso file.
posted by yeara at 6:41 AM on July 7, 2007

chudmonkey: i already went out and replaced the burner - same result.

the disk shows appropriate changes on the back - something's being written. I checked the discs in another computer and even my dvd player - nada.

So sad. thanks for the tips.

Next step: nuke and reinstall
posted by yggdrasil at 8:19 PM on July 8, 2007