Burning Backup to CD-R Impossible Due to Errors

I am unable to burn a CD as of yesterday. Two weeks ago, I burned 2 folders,
each about 180 MB, to a CDR disk. These two folders are "My Documents" and
"My Downloads". I used Roxio 5.0 Platinum WITHOUT the recommended Windows XP
patch and I had no problems. But now, I am unable to even burn a single Word
file document using Windows XP CD Writing Wizard or Roxio WITH the XP update
{18 MB}installed. I am continually receiving a message that errors were
encountered. The last successful burn about two weeks ago was accomplished
using my HP 8200's fastest setting which is 4X. I have reduced the speed of
the burn to 1X with no luck. I have tried a CD cleaning disk on this drive
as well. I am using the same media as before to burn to, Sony CD-R 700 MB
Data disks.

Any help would be appreciated.

Jeff

OK first of all, Roxio may have written the xp native burning but using EasyCD causes all kinds of problems, especially unpatched.

I would first recommend that you turning off the native burning and then get the xp patches from Roxio.

While you may not knowingly have done anything, if you installed any windowsupdates, things will have changed.

Thanks for the help NooNoo but I am unsure what you mean about turning off the native burning. I searched the XP Help and Support files but was unable to find anything? I also did an online search which mentioned right-clicking on “My Computer”, choosing “Manage” and so forth until I reach the area about Removable Storage>Libraries. I have looked at these options but was unsure of what to do, so I tried this:
· I completely uninstalled Roxio Easy CD Creator
· I ran a Registry Cleaner which removed quite a few keys that referenced Roxio and
· I unsuccessfully tried to burn another CD using the XP Burning Wizard.

I have tried two separate types of media with one designed for music and the other for data. The last successful burn on 12/7/2002 was to a Memorex Music CD-R.

I have also tried the System Restore BUT it continues to say it can’t restore the system. I first went back to 12/6/2002, and then tried the 8th, then the 10th, and so on until I reached 12/24/2002. My 30 GB drive is in 4 partitions with the partition XP is on being in the NTFS format. Could this be hampering the System Restore?

Could I just go to “Add/Remove Programs” to remove the Windows Updates if this is in fact the problem? I can remember one of the updates rendered my TweakUI unworkable until I removed it.

Could the CD burner be bad? Its fastest write speed is 4X and it is about three years old.

Any additional help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Jeff

To turn off native burning, open my computer, right click your cdwriter, select the recording tab and uncheck enable cd recording on this drive... reboot - it does not ask for a reboot.

Now since you have uninstalled roxio, I would suggest you download the trial of nero from www.nero.com and try burning with that... just to prove whether it is the burner or the burning programs.

If nero fails download aspichk and run that... if its green all is ok, if it is red, download aspi 4.7x - note you will have to agree to a licence at the bottom of the link that opens from the download link... install it and reboot, reinstall nero and try again.

If that fails, yes it could be the burner, but it does sound like aspi problems to me.

How to check the burner? Shove it in another machine and test it!

I would uninstall Roxio Easy CD Creator completely. Then install or re-install Windows XP SP1.

Test the burner to see if it works using Windows XP native burning software.

Then install your Roxio software again and then install the most current update.

You should have it working or you may have a bad drive.

Thanks NooNoo! ASPIChk utility did the trick. I downloaded the 4.72.a version{?} and ran the check utility. Then, I ran the "install" utility which was unzipped to the same folder after seeing that all componets were NOT installed properly. I downloaded the trial version of Nero and was able to burn a CD as well as using XP Native burning. I really liked the Nero software more than Roxio as it seems to have more utilities built in including the ASPI check function. I found a CD burner by Artec which burns at 48X for only $49.99 AND comes with Nero 5.5 so I may just buy the new burner as the software costs $49.95 through their website.

ON A SIDE NOTE: During all of this, my Windows XP Help and Support Center would not open no matter what I tried. I found a fix that solved the problem quickly. simply go to the run line and type in:

helpctr -regserver

It fixed me right up.

Thanks for the help,

Jeff