Questions tagged [optical-drive]

An optical drive is a kind of drive that can read (and usually write) optical media like CDs, DVDs, or Blu-Ray discs.

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How does a computer know which CD/DVDs to boot from?

What actually happens when a user reboots his or her system with an OS disk (or other bootable disk) in the CD/DVD drive? For example, when I put in my OS installation CD and start the computer up, ...
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Virtual join-directory on Windows

Problem: Say I have a video spanned over 2 files (vid001.avi & vid002.avi) and each file is on a seperate CD/DVD. If the 2 files are in the same directory my player will automatically play the ...
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How To Disconnect DVD-ROM From Laptop?

I have HP Pavilion dv5282ea and after sending it to laboratory, i noticed that my DVD-ROM activates from time to time, just like i am opening and closing it. I know i should open my laptop and fix the ...
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How is a hard-drive a bottleneck when burning a CD or DVD?

I have always wondered why people keep blaming hard-drives for causing buffer underruns when burning a CD or DVD. I’ve read many people saying to use a faster hard-drive or to make sure to defragment ...
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Macbook optical drive constantly checks for media after boot/wake from sleep and won't accept discs

The slot-loading optical drive on a Macbook (2006) running won't accept a disc when inserted--unless it is partially inserted and then slept/waken or the "Disc Burning" section of System Profiler is ...
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DVD drive is not able to detect or read blank dvd

I have a TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L632H DVD drive in my laptop. This drive is not able to detect or read blank dvd of Moser Baer but it can read blank dvd of Sony. What is the problem ? What is the ...
Martin's user avatar
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Force slim DVD and laptop HD on desktop motherboard to proper master/slave setting

I'm trying to add a slim DVD to my file server. The motherboard is a JetWay JNC81-LF, but I doubt the specific model is relevant, just that it's a desktop Mini-ITX board. I'm using a Chenbro ES34069 ...
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Can I use a pre-Unibody optical bay adapter in a Unibody MacBook Pro?

I have a 3rd-party drive adapter which allows me to put a 2nd hard drive in the optical drive bay of a 2008 MacBook Pro. I'm looking at getting a 2010 Unibody MacBook Pro; is this adapter likely to be ...
Luke Dennis's user avatar
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Why has my CDROM drive has disappeared from My Computer?

I have an HP DC7900 with Windows XP SP3 installed on it. I also have a Digital Recorder DS4000 but it's the only USB device shown in my computer. The CD drive has gone... Has anybody seen this issue ...
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Can I replace laptop's optical drive with SSD or other hard disk?

Can I replace my optical drive with a hard drive? I have an Asus N61J laptop, I have seen some sites on the web that advertise this procedure for Apple notebooks. I would prefer not to have an ...
Miguel Ping's user avatar
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Why is my CD-ROM device being automatically disabled at boot?

I'm running Windows 7 on a laptop, and I'm having a bit of an issue with my CD-ROM drive. Each time I boot up my computer, for some reason, that device gets disabled. In other words, I can't access it ...
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Laptop DVD Drive Slow When Reading CD/DVD ROM Discs But Not R/RW Discs

in one of my previous questions I had trouble with my laptop reading some CD's so I eventually replaced the CD/DVD combo drive with a second-hand one from ebay. I researched the drive I had to make ...
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Replacing laptop optical drive (DVD, blu-ray) - what do I need to know?

Are laptop optical drives always compatible? Do they come in different physical sizes? Are there any specs I need to match on the new drive, such as whether it has SATA? If so, how would I find ...
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Changing CD-ROM/DVD-ROM Drive Letter from D: to E:

I read this, but it doesn't address one question I've had about this (I'd comment on it, but my rep isn't high enough): When changing the ODD Drive Letter from D: to E:, I get this message in Windows ...
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Need Suggestions for a Good CD/DVD burner that also mounts .ISO files [closed]

I've been looking for this for a while now. I'd like a freeware program that burns all CDs and DVDs, and also mounts and runs .ISO files on virtual drives without requiring any additional software. Is ...
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BIOS and Windows cannot detect CDROM device

I have a HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4521B dvdrom device and a big problem. Some days ago everything worked fine. A friend installed some software and then the drives in winxp has been marked as corrupt. I ...
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Optical drive spins down to a halt and is unreadable

I have a burned audio CD that I'm trying to rip using iTunes on a recent vintage iMac (with a slot loading SuperDrive). I was able to import about two-thirds of the tracks before the inserted disc ...
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DVD drive troubleshooting [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: DVD drive disappears Recently my DVD drive has stopped responding to discs. I've tried to install software like Rosetta Stone and the Adobe Suite. The disk drive doesn't ...
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What Does It Mean When DVD-RW Drives Only Read CDs?

So, I have a really strange hardware problem with a laptop optical drive where it can read any CD, but no DVD (I am sure this is not a region encoding issue, despite being a French-bought laptop). ...
songei2f's user avatar
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Do all Blu-Ray writers write dual layer discs?

I would like to buy a BR writer. My question is simple: do all the models write BD-R DL or do I have to pay attention like for DVD burners? All the products, from all brands, I found so far on some ...
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SATA DVD drive refuses to read movie DVDs

Hey, I have a problem with my DVD Drive (Asus DRW-2014L1T, most current firmware installed) on Windows 7 x64. When I insert a DVD movie and Windows starts to access the drive (for autoplay, or when I ...
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Can I disable the optical drive in my Macbook Pro through OSX?

The drive is broken and makes angry noises when it spins up, the noise is becoming a problem when using my computer in class. I'd like to disable it. For reasons that aren't important I'd rather not ...
Chandler's user avatar
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Can't use a network CD-ROM

I have a computer with Windows XP and I'm trying to use my local network to use the CD-ROM of my notebook with Windows 7. On the Windows XP computer with VLC I can open the menu of the DVD, but after ...
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Windows 7 installation asks for DVD drivers

I have installed Windows XP on my machine (Company CQ5020NL). Before I was able to do that, I set the SATA controller to IDE in the bios. Now I want to install Windows 7 upgrade. The DVD boots into ...
koen's user avatar
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Windows XP: is DVD drive connected to master or slave on the IDE port?

I'm running a German Windows XP Professional and want to know whether my IDE-DVD-drive is connected to the master or slave without opening the machine. The device manager shows Ort: Pfad 0 (0) (in ...
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CD drive always available in a laptop

How can I make the CD drive always available in a laptop, even when it is running on batteries?
Liz's user avatar
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Windows 7 installation - CD\DVD driver issue on laptop

I'm installing Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit from an MSDN download onto a new Dell Studio 1558 laptop. Right after clicking "Install Now" I get the following message in a window titled Load Driver: A ...
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Looking for pin-out for 4 pin analogue CD-ROM audio cable

Remember those 4-pin audio cables which went from optical disk drive to sound card? I'm looking for pin-out for them.
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Macbook optical drive blocked

The optical drive on my Macbook seems to have some sort of blockage. When I try to insert a disk the disk seems to be hitting something inside the drive on the right side (the side nearer the monitor)....
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Are there any *hardware*-based CD/DVD drive emulation projects?

Does anyone know of anything like this? I am looking to create SD-card based alternatives for some of my old CD-drive-based gaming consoles.
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Optical drive not recognized in Win 7

I have just tried to use a CD in Windows 7, but it doesn't seem to be recognized. I have just used the same CD in the same drive on the same machine when I was booted into Linux, so hardware seems to ...
Grzenio's user avatar
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A disk is stuck in my slot-loading Dell Studio Hybrid. How can I get it out?

The slot-loading optical drive in my Dell Studio Hybrid has been acting up. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it churns and makes some unpleasant sounds. Now I can't even get it to eject the disc ...
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CD-ROM/DVD Drive doesn't work anymore

I have no idea why my CD-ROM/DVD drive doesn't work anymore. When I insert a disk it makes noises and opens again. If it matters, I just reformatted the computer from Ubuntu 10.04 to Ubuntu 9.10. ...
Dian's user avatar
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Pri slave drive ATAPI incompatible after setting bios to ACHI for ssd

The title says it all. I installed a SSD C:\ drive, and also have a SATA CD/DVD drive. When booting, the POST screen says that the CD/DVD Drive is ATAPI incompatible. In windows the CD/DVD works fine, ...
Chris's user avatar
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4 answers
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Windows 7 Can't read Disks

last week my DVD drive failed (or so i thought) i ordered a new one and fitted it today only to find that the same problem still persists. I have 2 DVD drives, the new one thats a SATA DVD/RW and an ...
Arcath's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
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Can my DVD burner write "Dual Layer" disks?

Is there a generic way to find out if a DVD burner can burn dual layer DVD’s without trying and potential waste a disk? Right now it’s this drive I’m wondering about but I'd like a solution that ...
Nifle's user avatar
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MacBook doesn't recognize oddly shaped disk

I put in a small oddly shaped disk into my MacBook and it didn't recognize it. There was none of the normal sounds you here when a disk is put in, so it doesn't know a disk is in the drive. So I can'...
None's user avatar
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2 answers
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What does the following error message mean in FreeDOS?

I'm in the process of installing the newest version of my BIOS driver and I have to use FreeDOS because I don't have windows (I'm using Ubuntu 9.10). So I'm following AndrejaKo's advice here. The ...
Shawn's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
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DVD Drive won't play DVDs, weird context menu

My DVD drive no longer recognises DVDs correctly, and I'm not sure how to correct this. On startup, Explorer displays the drive as DVD Drive (E:) overlaid with a "DVD" label (I have 2 hard ...
njd's user avatar
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DVD stops working in windows 7 64 bit

I have the same problem as described in this question: DVD/CD-ROM drives stop working in Windows 7 I know I have got some games that are using starforce and/or securerom. What I don't have is the ...
Skadlig's user avatar
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DVD writer doesn't detect, driver corrupt error

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525, and my DVD drive suddenly stopped showing in Windows Explorer. When I checked device manager it shows this error "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. ...
rzlines's user avatar
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Unable to boot from secondary IDE HDD when DVD burner connected as master

I have a (as it seems to me) strange problem with my DVD burner (Sony AD7540A) which I would like to use as master device on a IDE bus. There is a HDD on the bus as well that should be (is) the slave ...
scherand's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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"Audio port not available" on DVD-ROM drive

I'm currently rebuilding a vintage PC (DOS 6.22 only) and I need to replace the IDE CD-ROM. The one I bought (IDE DVD burner) have the SPDIF (2 pin) and 4 pin audio ports but the drive is labeled "...
AlexV's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
1k views

Software to manually lock an optical drive door

My toddler likes to come up and push the buttons on my PC when I'm trying to work from home, and sometimes he gets the CD or DVD drive open and nearly breaks it by pulling on the door. Is there some ...
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5 votes
3 answers
39k views

Computer won't boot from a bootable DVD

My friend gave me his old computer that used to have WinXP on it. I'm trying to load Win7 on it and I thought there was something wrong because it wouldn't boot off a bootable disc, even though I ...
JohnB's user avatar
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1 vote
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Burning mutiple discs at the same time

I'm trying to "mass produce" a DVD so I thought that by hooking up multiple burners to my computer and running multiple instances of Imgburn I would be able to reduce the amount of time I spent ...
Faken's user avatar
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ATAPI Incompatible, no DVD ROM detection

I have bought a computer, but I do not know how to properly identify the DVD ROM drive. I have tried all the IDE configurations: SATA primary, PATA secondary, etc., but it always gives me the error "...
user23598's user avatar
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1 answer
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Windows XP refuses to install on a dell mini 10

I have a dell inspiron mini 10. It boots from an external CD-ROM drive and goes through the first part of the windows XP home install with no problem, but on reboot it loses the CD-Rom drive when it ...
Zac's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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CD/DVD burn error in ImgBurn and Nero

I am getting the errors shown below when I try to burn a CD/DVD on my DVD writer. I am seeing this error for every CD/DVD I try to burn. I am not able to write any CDs or DVDs using ImgBurn. The burn ...
simplyblue's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
639 views

Cannot write DVDs anymore, but can read them and write CDs

I'm stumped. I used to be able to write to DVDs and now I can't. I've tried different media (Memorex and Imations) I've tried different drives (internal and external) and even different OS's (Windows ...
YAS's user avatar
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