Re: Unable to read my burned CDs and DVDs in various DVD-ROM drives...

Ant wrote:
Hello!

Is it me or do some old DVD-ROM drives have serious problems reading burned discs (CD-R, CD-RWs, DVD-Rs, DVD+Rs, DVD+RWs, DVD-RWs [assuming they can read them])? It can be unable to read the whole disc (e.g., Explorer says to insert disc) or partially discs (e.g., can't copy specific files). I have seen this at work and home with many IDE/PATA DVD drives, brands, PCs, etc.

I have used:
1. Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1912, Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1612 Rev. B (sometimes locks up the whole PC!), etc. for DVD-ROM drives.
2. Latest firmwares and even firmwares to remove region protections for both burners (e.g., Sony NEC Optiarc DVD-RW AD-7220S) and reader drives.
3. TDK, Memorex, Office Depot, Sony, HP, etc. New and old discs!
4. CDburnerXP v4.x, Nero Express Essentials SE v8.3.13.0, Roxio Easy CD Creator (an old version and can't remember it since it is at work).

I did notice using commercial pressed discs seem to have NO problems. Am I doing something wrong or just having a bad luck?

Thank you in advance. :)

This sort of thing was certainly an issue with CD-ROMs - perhaps a similar mechanism is at play here if your DVD-ROM drives are early ones. Writeable, and especially read-writeable, disks have lower reflectivity and are harder to read than pre-pressed disks. Older or cheaper CD-ROM drives (such as in cheapo music systems) have trouble with home-burned CDs because of this.

As someone else said, you may have head alignment problems on the recording drive. If the laser is not accurately aligned during recording, you'll get partial writes that will give less reflectivity contrast and be harder to read.
.

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