DVD Rom drive not playing DVD-R....

[ksbradley]

Hello, I am new here. I want to go buy a DVD burner this week, and was on my way to do so.. but ran into some computer problems.
I have a bunch of store bought DVD's, and a bunch of backed up movies on DVD-R.
Both my home DVD player and the compter DVD-drive played both perfectly..until now.
My home stand alone DVD player still plays both fine.
My DVD-rom drive in my computer now only recognizes the store bought DVD's. When I put a DVD-R into the drive, it doesn't recognize it. It says there is no disc in the drive??

I have important video on these DVD-R's that I want to back up. And am afraid to buy the burner until I can figure the problem out.

If anyone has ever heard of this problem--I would be greatly thankful.

Thanks in advance.
Kevin

[jdizzy40]

Re-install your DVD player software first. If that don't fix it. Delete the hardware in device manager, reboot and let the computer re-install the DVD-Rom drive. Then try your back-ups again. If they worked at one time, no reason why they still shouldn't again.

[ksbradley]

JDIZZY---Thanks--I hope.

I am at work right now, but will give it a shot as soon as I get home!!

[jdizzy40]

okay, i'm sure by then someone else might have a suggestion.

[ksbradley]

HElp!!!
I DELETED DRIVERS. RE-INSTALLED THEM.
THAT DIDN'T HELP. SO I UNINSTALLED THE DRIVE AND LET WINDOWS XP RE-INSTALL IT FOR ME. NO LUCK FROM THAT EITHER.
STILL-It reads store bought DVD, but not DVD-R.
Yet it used to a week ago--and my stand alone plays both still???

I am Confused. Any HELP would be great!

And--Do I Even Need My Dvd-Rom Drive to Burn DVD-R or can it all be done from the DVD-RW Drive?????

Please and Thanks!

[Laddydaddy]

It may be the media. Some drives are picky and you may have gotten lucky when it read the DVD-Rs the first time. If you want to copy videos on the DVD-R discs you should be able to read them with your DVD writer (when you get one). Put your DVD-R into the DVD-ROM drive then click on start>mycomputer. Then navigate to the DVD-ROM drive. Right click on it's icon then choose explore from the drop down box. If you see a VIDEO_TS folder then you can simply copy it to your hard drive and burn it from there using your favorite burning software along with the AUDIO_TS folder. You can also start DVD Decrypter and choose mode>iso>read. If you see information pop up in the right side of Decrypter's window then you are in luck. You can simply copy the file to your hard drive as an image and burn it to a new DVD-R as an image using DVD Decrypter. This is actually the preferred method. If neither of these suggestions work with the DVD-ROM drive they should work with your new DVD burner. It can read DVDs as well as burn them.

[ksbradley]

"LADDYDADDY"--Thanks for your post.

Unfortunately it wont help me. What happens when I click on properties, or open , or Explore---it all comes up the same---'Please insert a disk in to the Drive'.....It doesn't just not play---It does not recognize the disk at all.
So I would find it hard to believe that it is the media.
As I have Ritek, Memorex and 3 other kinds of media in this DVD-R format?>?>?>?>?>?>?>?>

Anyone else care to take a stab at this one?
PLEASE!

[jdizzy40]

Is this a factory DVD ROM, in other words one that came with the computer? The drive could of failed. The best thing I could say is if you had another DVD Rom , do a swap and see if another drive will work. If you are in the US, Walmart has LiteOn's for $44.00 (Black face). I'm fortunate to keep a spare in a box in case something go's wrong. This is my only suggestion at this point. Eliminate wether or not it is the hardware first, then wether it is OS or DVD software related.

[MOVIEGEEK]

D/L ForceASPI drivers,if that doesn't work I agree with jdizzy40 and buy a new DVD-ROM(preferably Lite-On or LG).

BTW..does your DVD writer recognize the DVD-R?

[ksbradley]

FINALLY!
I played around with any newly installed programs to see if that interfered. I installed a program called 'DVDXCOPY'. When I removed that everything worked again--perfect.

My only question now is what software would you use to burn dvd movie back-ups that does not do that?.?

Take care all-and thanks for the posts!!!

[MOVIEGEEK]

You could use Nero,etc. to make an ISO and burn a image,works for me.

[jdizzy40]

Grab DVD Shrink (Version 2.3) over in the tools section, it's freeware. The resulting files can be burned with Nero or Record Now. If using the new Nero 6 the DVD Profile already has the empty AUDIO_TS folder added, so just double click the VIDEO_TS folder and add your movie files. If using Nero 5 or Record Now Max, sure you include a folder AUDIO_TS (which will be empty) along with your VIDEO_TS folder which will have your files in it. Post back if you have questions. There is a guide available for DVD Shrink. It's real simple to use.