NEC ND-3540A and blank DVD+R discs

Question

I recently installed an NEC-3540A DVD-RW drive, and it works fine with CDs and unencrypted DVDs, but it displays the capacity of blank DVDs as zero bytes. The Windows driver update feature said that the driver was up-to-date, though it was signed in 2001.

davejohn · Answer

The Windows drivers are the latest.  What are you using to look at the blank disk?  If you look at it with My Computer what you see is correct.  To Windows a blank disk is a blank disk, 0 bytes on it and 0 capacity.   Download DVDInfoPro and use it to look at the disk.   Are you having problems burning DVD's?   Dave

Wesley Whitaker · Answer

Thank you for the information about DVDInfoPro. It revealed that the disc is blank and has the correct available capacity. However, when I try to copy a file to it, I get a message which simply says that Windows has encountered a problem, and asks me if I want to ignore it or retry. Ignoring shuts down the copy procedure while retry simply gives the message again.

I am using XP service pack 2. I tried checking the box in the Properties\recording tab which allows the use of the C drive to create an image of the CD (or DVD, I assume), but this had no effect on the problem.

I thought that copying files to a DVD would be the same as with a CD.

davejohn · Answer

No, XP doesn't natively support burning files to DVD like it does to CD.  You'll have to use a third party program, like Sonic (yuk), Nero or Roxio Easy Media Creator. Dave

Wesley Whitaker · Answer

Thanks once again. I just bought the Roxio product. It seems ridiculous to have to buy the drive, a separate program to play DVDs, and another to burn them.

Storage, Drives & Media

NEC ND-3540A and blank DVD+R discs

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