CD won’t burn in CD burner
Question:
I have used the instructions provided on your convert-cassette-to-cd pages and have material on my computer but my attempts to transfer to a cd regularly tells me that there is material to write to the cd but refused to do so. I am told that I need to insert a cd although I have a blank, formatted cd in the drive.
Answer:
I am told that I need to insert a cd although I have a blank, formatted cd in the drive.
Okay. When you get this error, you’re often dealing with a physical media or drive problem. It’s your computer telling you that it’s ready to write something to the CD, but it physically can’t. I don’t know your specific setup, but I can make some guesses based on past experience.
Reasons for your problem could include:
The disc itself is bad. If you haven’t already, try using a different, new disc.
The drive itself is not capable of recording to the type of disc you’ve inserted. Some drives can be very picky about what discs they will and won’t write to. Verify the media type matches the drive type (ignore this if you’ve used the drive to burn this disc type before, or if you have name brand discs like Sony, TDK or Verbatim).
Check to see if there are any patches available for your disc burning software. (If you’re using Windows to burn, then make sure you have no pending Windows Updates.
If available, upgrade the drivers for your drive. I’ve seen out of date drivers cause these kind of issues, and this often doesn’t get caught by Windows Update.
If available, upgrade the firmware on your drive. I’ve seen out of date firmware cause these kind of issues too, and this will NOT get picked up by Windows Update.
If it’s not the disc, it could be the disc drive itself. You probably don’t have a spare CD burner around, but if the above diagnostics don’t help, I think you’re looking at a new drive. You could take it in to a stop to get confirmed, of course, though a new CD burner drive is pretty cheap. $30 or so. If the drive is old, replace it. If the drive is new, check to see if it’s still covered under warranty.
