Vista - Can't burn a DVD, Message: Insert a blank disk

Hello,

I have a new Vista computer and when I go to burn a CD (for example how Vista wants you to make an initial back up of your system, and it asks you to insert a CD/DVD to make a copy) and when I put in a brand new writable DVD in to the DVD player it keeps telling me that I need to put in a new disk. It will not let me burn it. I have tried it with many different disks, all of which are writeable and DVD with the DVD device.

Message: Insert a blank disk.

I have also tried this on another vista system and get the same results.

Any thoughts? Do the DVD's need to be formatted? The DVD's are new and I thought that they only sold formatted DVD's.

Thanks

Hello,

No, the dvd's do not need to be formatted, they are blank and ready to be written on when purchased.
Also are you using a quality brand, or is it of questionable quality?

Are you using DVD +RW or DVD -RW? what does your dvd player support?

Well one that I tried this morning was DVD -R.

M

Two things. you should go into the device manager (type device manager in search) and look for your dvd drive and make sure it is installed and working properly. If it has a yellow triangle on it, or if it is not there then you need to install a driver. If it is there are you right click it go to properties and it should say this device is working properly.

Check the front of the dvd drive see if it says dvd +, dvd -, or dvd +, -. If its not listed check the owners manual.

Ken

Thanks all for the help. I see that there is a lot of questions about whether the DVD disk and player are DVD -R or DVD +R. I read about the diferences, but it doesn't tell me if they are interchangeable. Meaning, I should be able to use both -R and +R right? Or does it depend on my player. One of the two DVD 's that are not cooperating just say DVD rewritable.

MW

Does the drive work with the vista dvd, and others not of the new batch? If so its the new ones, if not maybe a driver


Ken

If the dvds wont work in any machine, it is the dvds.

edit:

to make sure, use one of the DVDs towards the bottom of the stack in the other computer. If it doesn't work there, then it wont likely work in the one you originally posted about.

You might have gotten a bad batch of DVDs.

ON my second machine the DVD hardware is DVD+RW.

Try this freeware: DVD Identifier - Video software and downloads - VideoHelp.com

and post the info so we know for sure what discs we are talking about.
Also you might see the tutorial how to disable shell DVD burning and use a good program like Imgburn which is also free.