Ok, so here’s the story:
I needed to backup my data on my computer (OS=XP) and I was without a writable DVD drive, so I bit the bullet and ponied up the cash to buy an external usb DVD+-Ram drive. Appeared to be pretty decent; +R, -R, and -Ram compatible with lightscribe capability… up to 20x. Should do what it’s supposed to.
I got it home, set it up and tried to burn. First thing I noticed was that it was writing at a very, very, very slow speed, and with erratic speeding up/slowing down of the disc while writing. The software was set at a 16x rate… I figured I’d see what happened, because it was more important for me to be able to write the discs than to write them quickly. but it wouldn’t complete a session… so I decided to use the version of the software that came with the drive – no dice.
re-checked the sys reqirements, and found that everything was fine, but I kinda attributed the slow speeds to me having usb 1.0 ports (which are supported).
I scoured the ‘net for burning apps, and ran into issues with pretty much all of ’em… found one that would burn data, but when I tried dvd images it would fail… I finally stumbled across “JetBee” which allowed me to burn whatever I wanted, with no problem albeit still slower than it should’ve been – a full data disc would take approx 2 hours to complete without data verification being performed.
So it was doing what I needed, until lately, when I ran out of the DVD-R’s that I had been using (Kodak). I began using Memorex DVD-R’s of which I have an abundance, and the performance of the drive has pretty much returned to its previous state. At first I blamed it on the type of disc (although it didn’t make much sense because they are both -R’s and the drive is manufactured by memorex..), but now I believe it was just a co-incidence, and the problem lies deeper.
I’ve recently noticed that the drive no longer appears in “My Computer” but is present and appears to be fine in Device Manager. It also was picked up fine when I reinstalled it.
So I was curious, & attempted to read a DVD-R that had been previously written, and no autorun appeared, nor did the icon in My Computer… So I attempted to access the drive by using “run” and was given an error message reading something to the effect of “There is no file association present for this file type. Create one in Folder Options of the control panel”
I’m hoping for an easy fix here… I really don’t wanna have to reformat my computer, just to see if it’ll work, unless I have to – hoping that’ll be the last resort.
So I’m stumped, and beyond frustrated.. Pleaase someone help me. 🙁
Thanks so much, in advance 🙂