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A typically moronic question from me

3K views 16 replies 8 participants last post by  brite750 
#1 ·
This one is about my CD-ROM drive. It's a Lite-On LTN 4865 48x max, and I've never been able to get it to work as a way of transferring files from my PC to a CD.

It's supposed to, isn't it? I mean, in the same way that I used to move files from my PC to a 5.25 or 3.5" floppy.

I buy packs of CDs (the most recent are Memorex CD-RW) and try to move files on my PC (I've got a lot and want to get them off), but the computer just tells me to insert a CD into the drive, even though I've already got one of the CDs in there. So I click ok and get the same message. I reopen the CD-rom, put the disk back in and try again, and get the same result.

I can play music CDs in the drive, so it seems to be working. I know I'm doing some dumb wrong thing. What is it? Thanks.
 
#2 ·
:) Copying files to a CD doesn't work like when copying to a floppy...You need to use CD Burning Software. It probably came with the CD Drive, but some CD drives don't come with any software, so you have to get a copy.
I recommend "Record Now" from "Veritas". Nero seems to be the best selling one. I found a super cheap deal on that one:

http://softwareoutlet.com/static/item4406.html

Once the program is installed and ready to go, all you do is open and follow the instuctions, using "drag and drop" in order to burn and create Cd's. Good Luck! :)
 
#3 ·
Yes and no Larry. To transfer files as you would with a drive or drive partition your CD burner must be looked at that way by the software you're using to burn with.

Direct CD is an example of this. It loads automatically on boot and is always ready to go. It's a part of the Roxio suite. What program are you using, Nero? Easy CD? CDBurner?
 
#5 ·
Larry, if you are using Windows XP then it should already have its own burning program, all you have to do is select one or more files you want to burn and then right click and choose the send to D, or whichever drive your burner is located. Then just pop in a blank CD and choose "write files to disc" option when prompted with a new window containing the files you choose to burn. Hope this helps you, if not there is always some freeware program out there that you can download in helping you to burn your files/data. Best of luck
 
#7 ·
If I Am Reading Your Post Right,you Are Trying To Write Files To A Disk Using Your Cd-rom Drive.you Have To Have A Cd Burner To Copy Files From Your Pc To Disk.all A Cd-rom Does Is Read Disk.that Is Why You Can Play Music On It.
 
#8 ·
rhorne4 said:
If I Am Reading Your Post Right,you Are Trying To Write Files To A Disk Using Your Cd-rom Drive.you Have To Have A Cd Burner To Copy Files From Your Pc To Disk.all A Cd-rom Does Is Read Disk.that Is Why You Can Play Music On It.
Nice catch rhorne4. You're right. I looked up the model and it's not a CD-RW. That's what we get for assuming no one has a straight CD drive anymore. :eek:
 
#10 ·
Per the useful instructions here I downloaded "Deepburner" onto my PC and then moved some of my files into its burner, but when I attempted to burn the data onto the CDs I recently bought, the message was "Drive not ready. Drive is possibly busy or is empty."

The drive is not empty, and the green light is not on on the CD-ROM drive. What am I doing wrong now? Thanks.
 
#13 ·
That is very bad news. Dumb me for not checking on this when I bought the PC -- didn't realize the difference. Any suggestions on how I go about doing this? My PC is oldish (2+ years old) and I may eventually need to get a new one, so need to get my files off of it.
 
#14 ·
:) Hello!,
Here is a link that takes you step by step in order to burn CD's on a computer with Windows XP. You don't need extra software, you will need Adobe Acrobat to see this document: Once you get to the "lessons" page, it is lesson #311. There are many other helpful lessons on this site...take a look:

http://www.jefflevy.com/lessonsDetail.aspx?idG=1

If your computer is only 2 to 3 years old, it won't have one of those old 5.25 " floppy disk drives. They stop making them some ten years ago!
Can you get your computer's make, serial number, model, specs, etc?

Good Luck! :) Xavier57
 
#15 ·
xavier57, read above. He doesn't have a CD-RW, can't burn anything.

Larry, You can get a decent burner (CD-RW) for a pretty reasonable price and it's a good bet that it will be recognized immediately after installing it and be ready to burn. It will come with Nero probably but you won't really need it though it's nice. You don't say what type of PC you have, processor, memory, etc., but 2 years old with XP isn't that old or out of date normally.

If you live near a Frys or Office Depot or CompuCare or God forbid, Best Buy, go in and check prices. My preference is Frys. If you buy a new PC in a few months or a year you can always pull this new drive and install it in the new machine which will likely come with a DVD/CD-RW so you can burn direct disk to disk with the two optical drives.

PS: Removing the old CD ROM and installing the new CD-RW is very easy.
 
#16 ·
Thanks for all the help. My old PC had the 5.25, by the way -- years and years and years ago. I was just referring to the old, easy world in which you stuck in a floppy ... and copy. :eek:

I will look into this CD bburner thing. Maybe I will bring it to a PC shop and get it installed? Could the person doing the installing also put in more memory? I have a huge need for more memory. What's a good amount of memory to run Roxio's movie studio?

My PC is a Dell Dimension DIM2350 Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80 Ghz, 1.79 Ghz, 128 Mb of RAM. About half of my PC's hard drive is full.
 
#17 ·
Larry_Dunn said:
Thanks for all the help. My old PC had the 5.25, by the way -- years and years and years ago. I was just referring to the old, easy world in which you stuck in a floppy ... and copy. :eek:

I will look into this CD bburner thing. Maybe I will bring it to a PC shop and get it installed? Could the person doing the installing also put in more memory? I have a huge need for more memory. What's a good amount of memory to run Roxio's movie studio?

My PC is a Dell Dimension DIM2350 Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80 Ghz, 1.79 Ghz, 128 Mb of RAM. About half of my PC's hard drive is full.
Yeah they can if you have open slots otherwise you have to pull your existing sticks out and buy ones with larger capacity, 128 I have to think you have open slots though, its funny when you called it a CD-rom i thought ah, if its a rom only your not going to burn many files, installing a burner and ram is pretty easy if you wanted to get your feet wet.
 
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