I saw someone recently that had a burner that would only
use "DVD+" disks.  He was trying to use "DVD-" disks.
He was not able to burn (or even recognize) the "DVD-"
disks since they were not supported by his burner...
(Recently, most very new drives have tried to support both
types but you never know...)
I use a program, Nero Info tool, to get the specs on a drive.
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/
(While there, get CDSpeed too.)

The following is about burning ONLY your OWN files.
Like things (files) you made yourself, etc.
You can't "in a normal way" copy Hollywood movies or
anything encrypted, for example. (And this is the wrong list
for that type of info, as it is a topic not allowed, I believe.)

To burn a DVD with files already on your HD:
I use Nero, (but most programs are similar).
In Nero, the first thing you need to do is select the drive you
want to burn to.  You also need to select that you want to burn
specifically a DVD as opposed to burning a CD.

How you make these selections is entirely dependant on your
Nero version number and if it is the "Express" type, or the Full
Nero BurningRom...
There are lots of interface differences from ver 5 to ver 6,
and Express is dumbed down too much for my personal tastes.
(I LOVED the Wizard in ver 5 full version however...)
In ver 5, (not in the Wizard), you make the DVD selection
in the top left drop down box in the new compilation window.
Select the recorder in the Recorder/Choose Recorder menu.
(I hope other "types" of Nero are similar.)
Drag the files to burn to the left Nero window and then hit Burn.

To answer your second question, yes, you should be able to
"burn" an image file of a DVD "project" to your hard drive.
This "always" works with Nero, even if NO burners are
recognized by the program.
*(More later about Nero recognizing the burner.)

To do this, you select DVD as the type of disk you want to
make, select "Image Recorder" as the chosen recorder,
select files from your hard drive as you normally would
and it sends the "project" DVD to the hard drive as a Nero
"*.NRG" image file when you hit the "Burn" button.
That is "almost like" a "Zip" File of the project, and you can
use THAT file (alone) to burn all the other files later.
The "functionality" is exactly like using an ISO file...
(If you never heard of ISO files, please research them
yourself.)

* Does Nero NOT recognize your burner?
If Nero does not recognize your burner, it can be one of
several reasons.

1) Your burner may be too new for your FULL version
of the program. In this case, update the program to the latest
release of your version.
Nero 5 is up to 5.5.10.56 (and being old, is "stuck" there...)
Nero 6 is up to 6.6.0.15a (Release date:July 15th, 2005)

2) Your software may be OEM, and is not "allowed" to be used
with different manufacturers burners and/or "can't" see or use
yours. (Not much you can do to fix that, other than get the
right OEM version or (better choice) get the Full version.

3) The drive "could" be broken and not recognized for that
reason alone... (Try the drive in a different computer with
a Full version of some burning program.)
(If this discussion, when I say full version, I mean a version
that will use ANY burner drive connected.

There are other reason also... I had a drive that had some sort
of firmware glitch for the region selection and determination
stuff.  As it happened, the "target" computer also had some sort
of file configuration (mixed DLL versions) problem that is quite
common and almost un-repairable, according to the various
discussions around the "Net".

(Just because a drive is new does not guarantee it will work...)

               Hope this helped.

                             Rick Glazier


From: "Amy Ledford" <[log in to unmask]>
> 1.  I recently purchased a DVD burner drive, which
> will play and burn CDs, and will play DVDs, but will
> not burn DVDs. I have tried at least 2 burning
> softwares--Nero and Cyberlink's Power2Go. I have also
> updated the driver as well.
> 
> 2. Even if I cannot burn to a disc, shouldn't I still
> be able to save the file in question to my hard drive?

                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>