I can't burn pictures onto CD-RW anymore. Help! I'm running out of disk space!

[newgranny]

I'll be honest ... I know just enough about computers to get myself INTO trouble, but not necessarily OUT of trouble!

But, I haven't had a problem with my computer in the past couple of years because I've learned to read and ask questions before trying any 'fixes' by myself.

I have a Dell Dimension 4100, Intel Pentium III that originally came with Windows 98, but I've been running Windows XP for the last two years or so without a problem.

I run defrag weekly and run spyware and anti-virus scans daily.

I have a digital Nikon camera and take lots of pictures of my new grandson.  I organize them and put them into folders on my desktop.  I 'save' them with a photo editor to minimize their size and then I drag and drop the folder to my D: drive, which is my CD-RW drive.

This has worked without a hitch for over a year.

For the last few months it won't work!  The wizard will stop and tell me that it cannot write files to that drive because the CD is either full or corrupt. (paraphrasing)

I went to the store and bought new CD-RWs and I still get the same message!

Device manager tells me it is working properly.
Under D: drive properties the box is checked to enable.

The only thing I can think of that could possibly be different in the last few months would be the automatic updates from Microsoft.

Because of the folders of photos sitting on my desktop my available disk space is getting quite low and my computer has slowed down dramatically.

I'm afraid my hard drive will crash, but I don't want to delete the precious photos of my grandson.

Can you give me any helpful suggestions?

Thank you so much!

[ChrisXPPro]

Two things - and not necessarily a solution.

First - I do wonder if the CD-ROM has a laser problem and cannot write properly - but then would ask if it is reading data OK or not.  Right now I am thinking the CD-ROM is faulty enough to give problems even tho it shows as 'working properly'. 

Wonder also - just thought - maybe knock it out from Device manager and see if a reboot will let XP ''find'' it again .... not that that would fix a laser problem.

Tried a CD cleaner disk? - another late thought.

Second - do you have serviceable USB ports?  If so - and even if USB 1.1 - get a decent size flash stick - even 2Gb and 4Gb units are these days pretty good for price.  If this worked then at least copy stuff onto that medium for now - safety measure and then even take flash stick to a friend's puter and burn then onto  CDs.

[newgranny]

Thanks for your quick reply!

Yes, it is reading properly.  I can put in any disk with photos and they are all there.

How can I knock it out of the device manager?  Just highlight it and delete it?  Then reboot my computer?

Thanks!

[ChrisXPPro]

Select the item and right click - and select uninstall.

Hopefully then on next boot up - it should be seen and reinstalled.  May not change anything of course re burning problem.

You didn't say about your USB status - I still think this could be a good first stage to at least archive those new pics - and maybe even then pick up a new CD-ROM drive.

Oh one more thing - you mentioned CD-RW --- have you tried a simple CD-R disk as a comparison.  You'll only waste 20c if it goes wrong.!  And - tho I don't use CD-RW - never have for some reason - do they not need a format before use, or am I thinking back to dark old days!?

[TheShadow]

Well, I've got lot's of experience with CD-RW disks, and all of it BAD.

My personal experience with RW's is that they are not reliable and may not even be readable on any drive except the one that wrote them.
That alone, makes them almost useless.
SO, why spend a lot more money for a disk that's not reliable?

CD-R disks are very reliable, when used with a properly functioning CD burner and are very inexpensive too.  And, I'm told the average disk will last for about 30 years.

There are countless CD/DVD burning programs available.  Many even FREE!
My personal favorite has always been the World-Class "Nero".
It will do everything a CD burning program should do and does it well.

However, even Nero can't compensate for a malfunctioning CD burner.

I hope this has been somewhat helpful

Cheers mates!
The Shadow 

[newgranny]

Okay .... I deleted the CD drive, then rebooted the computer and XP did find it and it is there again.

I do have 2 USB ports, one of which is being used already.

I have an Omega zip drive but the disk only has 100MB of space on it, not nearly enough for what I need.

And, before I went out and bought the RW disks I went through about 25 R disks which could not be reused and I had to throw them away.  This is why I bought the RWs.

Where is the best place for me to find out about this Nero burner?

Thanks!

[newgranny]

I just downloaded Real Player only to discover I cannot import the .jpg format of my photos, only music and video formats.

Now, I have to remove this software from my computer because it's not helping and I'm really REALLY getting low on hard drive space.

I'm going to go to the store tomorrow and buy a CD burner cleaning disk to see if that helps at all.

Any other suggestions are more than welcome!

Thanks!

[ChrisXPPro]

Real Player?  Not sure why you got that!

A Google search will lead you to sources for Nero.

If a CD cleaning disk does not help then consider a replacement burner .... but check to see if old one is IDE or SATA so the connection will be same.

Re HDD space - maybe you have done this already but see if you can get rid of some unnecessary stuff, like tmp files, internet cache etc and empty recycle bin.

If you have a spare USB port then a flash stick could still be an option as an interim measure.  Even possibly, add a 2nd HDD as internal - or obtain an external to use via USB.  Seems to me the priority is to get those pics copied/transferred and saved.

[BC_Programmer]

Given this thread is about disk space (in effect) I'm surprised nobody has recommended CCleaner...

[TheShadow]

For a CD burner to write to a disk, it must first CACHE the Data.  It needs space for that cache.  I might suspect that with NO space left on your HD, there's also no room for the cache.  If that's the case, that would stop the burning process right there.

I've tried CCleaner twice and both times it's messed something up on my PC.
NO MORE!  I use a combination of my own XPCleanup.bat program and the "Disk Cleanup" program that comes already installed in Windows.

You can get even more in-depth cleaning, but just getting rid of all the temp files, temporary internet files and the basic garbage that windows puts on a HD, will get you back a lot of your HD space.

There may or may not be anything wrong with the CD burner.

Just a thought,
The Shadow 

[BC_Programmer]

Good point TheShadow- the built-in burning facilities all require disk space to write their image file.

[ChrisXPPro]

Agreed - something I had forgotten about! 

Hopefully if some space can be rescued things might improve.

[Siscorskiy]

Given this thread is about disk space (in effect) I'm surprised nobody has recommended CCleaner...

mmmm

[truenorth]

newgranny, It is my belief that "The Shadow" is pointing you in the right direction. It is not that you optical media disc does not have enough space it is the partition of your hard drive that has run out of space. All these marvelous grandchildren pictures that you have been burning to you disc --have you EVER gone in and removed ANY of them once you placed them on your computer (from the camera)? If not by now ("for a year or so") being a typical grandparent you may have choked your hardrive partition. Bring up the hardrive from "my computer" and right click on the drive symbol and then select properties and tell us what the percentage of "used space and free space " are? truenorth