Computer Locks Up When Trying To Read CD-RW With Direct CD

All of a sudden, I have this weird problem where when I try to read CD-RW disks formatted for Direct CD, in Windows Explorer or My Computer, it won't read, just shows the hourglass & locks up. I was last able to use Direct CD successfully on 8/13/05 when I formatted a CD-RW disk using Direct CD & copied files to it from my hard drive, the exact thing I'm trying to do now that won't work, & I've done multiple times successfully in the past. This is the 1st time I tried it since 8/13/05. I don't figure it's the drive, since it shows in My Computer & Windows Explorer, & if I Right Click on the icon, can access the properties, & shows usage of the drive. I don't figure it's the disk since I tried other(s) & the same thing happened, & I did a scan of the disk, which was OK. I don't figure it's the program, because I was able today 9/3/05, to format another CD-RW disk using Direct CD, & because I tried a repair of the program, & had the same problem, so uninstalled completely & reinstalled, & still the problem persists. It seems like a Windows Explorer problem, except the CD-RW drive is the only thing that seems to be affected. I can open every folder in the tree without trouble & it shows the contents, but when I click on the CD-RW drive icon, in Windows Explorer or My Computer, it just locks up, then have to kill at tower to shutdown. No Close Program box appears when CTRL, ALT, DEL. It ONLY seems to happen when a disk is in the drive. Without a disk in the drive, when I Left Click the drive icon, I get the drive not accessible box, as should be due to no disk in the drive, but it does NOT lock up. Also, ONLY with a disk in the drive, when I open My Computer, the little flashlight appears, as if searching for files or folder contents, then after several seconds, the contents appear. Without a disk in the drive, only several folders show up in Windows Explorer, but then after a few seconds, the rest of the tree appears. I'm NOT prepared to format my hard drive, as I was in the process of checking out these files & backing them up for such an occasion when this problem occurred. I've still got plenty of these files to check out & copy to CD-RW before I'll do that.

These are things I've tried, unsuccessfully to attempt to solve the problem:

1)Rebooted, multiple times, not just a glitch
2)Scandisk, thorough, files, folders, hard drive surface, all complete-OK
3)Scan CD-RW disk for errors, within program, no repair needed- disk OK
4)Attempted Repair of Internet Explorer, through Add/Remove Programs- don't have that option, only have Remove & return to prior configuration so tried that anyway. No Internet Explorer showed in the list but got back in.
5)ScanReg /Restore but only went back to 8/31/05 & started- Used anyway
6)Attempted Repair of Roxio Easy CD Creator 5, needed CD to do
7)Uninstalled & Reinstalled Roxio Easy CD Creator 5, needed CD to do
8)Ran virus scan with AVG 7- No Virus
9)Ran Spybot Search & Destroy- No Spyware
10)Ran AdAware-No Spyware
My Configuration:
Gateway G6-350
350MHz Processor
384 MB Ram
Internet Explorer 6
10GB Hard Drive
Lite-On LTR 40125S CD-RW Drive



I'm not sure this is the right forum for this, but it seems like a windows problem to me, so this is where I posted it.

I sure hope somebody can help me, because I am stumped.

 

What happens when you look at a comercial disk, like the roxio disk or a windows installation disk? Can you see the files and folders in explorer? Don't see mention of that. If you can't see them, you need a new drive.

 

Generally this happens when the disk was not closed or finalized and is accessed by windows explorer instead of directcd.
What happens is that esplorer looks for a format table of contents file , not finding it, it things the entire disk is a table of contents and concludes that there is more data on the CD (over 4 terrabytes in many cases) than can fit on your hard drive. It chokes.

This often happens if direct cd had a startup entry you disabled or if you installed something which conflicts with it.
It can also happen if you removed the disk before closing direct cd and choosing the safely eject option. It did not finish writing the table of contents.

 

I never have to 'close' the CD or DVD I'm using with Drag-to-Disk (Roxio), even when it's removed from the drive and later re-inserted, and the explorer can always read it. Of course, another computer can't, but that doesn't apply here,

 

Sparrow: I put the Roxio CD in the CD-RW drive. At 1st, I didn't have windows explorer open, just the desktop & some windows like this 1, & a few other things. A dialog box popped up asking if I wanted to install the program. I'd think that means the drive was at least reading a CD was in it. I hit cancel, then tried it in windows explorer. It opened up no problem showing a list of the files & folders on the Roxio CD. I guess at least that means the drive's good. The last time a CD-RW drive was bad for me, it didn't even show in My Computer. I tried looking in My Computer, double clicked the icon & it showed the same as prior to windows explorer: Do I want to install, then I said no & cancelled. It didn't show the files & folders there, just windows explorer, which is what you suggested in the 1st place, just figured I'd try My Computer too. Thanks for the idea. At least I figure the drive should be good.
It still doesn't solve my problem but at least I know what it's not. Do you have any other ideas as to what to do to solve it. Thanks again & for your quick response.

 

Oshwyn5: Thanks for your quick response to my post. When I format with Direct CD, it takes 20-40 minutes or so, then a box pops up telling me it's done, & ready to read & write through windows explorer, so I didn't close anything before it was done. I thought that was the whole point of formatting it Direct Cd, so I can read & write to it though windows explorer,
add files, take away files. Whe I Right Clicked on the CD-RW I 1st discovered this problem on today or maybe last night, & Left Clicked Properties, it does show the amounts used & free, so it is showing I have something on the CD, but all of a sudden, like I said it won't read it in windows explorer, just locks up the whole screen, can't move the mouse or anything. If you have any ideas as to what to do to actually fix this problem, it would be appreciated.

 

That is because it is doing this as part of the data burn (creating an updated TOC). But if you mess with things it can fail to do this.
I have seen it happen and this is the cause.

 

Right, sounds like the drive's good. Next, close one of the disks you write (the window should ask if you want to prepare the disk to be used in any computer, or something along that line, choose yes) and see if another computer can read it, and if your's can too. CD-RW drives have two lasers, one to read and another to write and it's possible that one's not working any more.

 

Sparrow: Yeah that's my point, a CD-RW is supposedd to be able to add to.

Oshwyn5: The ONLY type of CDs that I "close" or "finalize" is when I'm burning music CDs on CD-R disks. Otherwise, I'd think that would defeat the purpose of having a CD you can read & write & rewrite, add files, take away files, etc. like a CD-RW disk.

 

Yes, this is a problem when it failed to write the TOC before it was removed.

The last time I encountered this, I used
CD DATA RESCUE
To recover the files on the CD and copy them to a folder so I could burn them to a new CD.


Bad copy pro may work.

Isobuster also should do the job and free to try


Ninety nine percent of the time, the TOC gets updated and closed before you press the eject button, but once in a while things go bad on a CDRW, and also if things are not running correctly it may let you eject it without closing.

You could always try launching direct CD and see if it can open the disk and fix it.

Remember it is supposed to be able to add to a CDRW because it writes a new TOC (updates it ) each time before it is removed. If you remove it after the old one is erased, but before the new one is written, no TOC, windows explorer crashes.

 

Sparrow: I'm not understanding your instructions. What do you mean by "close" one of the disks I write, & what do you mean by one of the disks I write? Are you referring to 1 of the CD-RW disks or even the specific disk I discovered the problem while trying to copy files to ? That disk has about 55mb free on it. Should I pick 1 of the disks that's full already? How do I go about closing the disk? I dodn't even remember that being an option for Direct CD, just for writing CD-Rs, then it gives options of how to close.
If you can provide me with instructions I might be able to give it a try when I get a chance, but right now I'm getting ready to go away. Thanks Again !

 

oshwyn5: Thanks for posting back. I already tried to "fix" the CD-RW disk within the Direct CD program utility. It said there was nothing to "fix" as there were no errors on the disk. I can try it again or look for other options within the utiltity. I can even if need be format the disk again for Direct CD, if that can be done, & just add the files back to the same disk,if I can figure out what they were; if the format erases the old files, & frees up whatever disk space they used, because they're still on my hard drive. As stated in my original post, I tried at least 1 more CD-RW disk, & it did the same thing. If I remember right, this is a disk I just formatted for Direct CD today, & as usual, waited for the box to pop up saying it's done, & ready to read & write through windows explorer. I can try several other disks I have that are full & have worked fine previously also. I can even try to format yet another disk for Direct CD & try that 1, although the empties won't show files but if the problem is really only 1 bad disk, it should open a blank window & not lock up. It can't be that all the disks are bad. Also from what I determined, the drive doesn't appear to be bad either. What's with the flashlight looking for contents when I open My Computer only when there's a disk in CD-RW drive?
When I get that, I haven't even clicked on the drive icon yet.

 

sparrow: The only options I have in Direct CD for Use On Any Computer & Close for UDF v.1.5 are for Close Options for CD-R ONLY. It looks like it might be the disk, although I don't understand that since I was able to copy files to it once , maybe twice, with no problems. Why would it just ***** up now, & check out good with the Direct CD scandisk utility at the same time? I've tried several other disks, 1 empty & 2 full, with no problems. If interested, see my response to oshwyn5's #10 response to my post for additional info.

 

oshwyn5:
If you're ready for a long winded response, I tried some things after your last response to my post. They are as follows: I ran the scandisk utility in Direct CD again on the suspect CD-RW disk. These are the results, like before:
Step Status
1)Checking CD OK
2)Getting CD Info Not Needed
3)Finding Lost Files Not Needed
4)Reparing CD Not Needed
5)Checking File Integrity OK

The buttons on the utility are Done & Help. Whe I clicked on Help, I only got explanations of the above steps. They are as follows:

1)Checks to see if it can read CD, see a list of files & folders on CD
2)ONLY if scandisk can't see files & folders on CD
3)Looks for lost files & allows copy to another location if any found
4)Attempts repair ONLY if necessary
5)Looks for damaged files

Clicked on Done to close Scandisk Direct CD utiltiy

Also shows on the main Direct CD Info:

Status:Ready for reading & writing
Label:Music Files
Free Space:56MB
Total Space:535MB
Type:CD-RW
Compressed:No
Used Byirect CD

ONLY things CD-RW Options show are how to deal with Notifications

Next, I tried the CD-RW disk I just formatted for Direct CD today, 9/3/05. It is so far still blank & empty. The results follow:

Windows Explorer: Right Click, then Left Click explore - No Lock-Up
Also Right Click, then Left click Open - No Lock-Up
Also Left Click Highlight - No Lock-Up

My Computer:Opens Normal & all contents there
Also Right Click , then Left Click Open - No Lock-Up
Also Right Click, then Left Click Explore - No Lock-Up
Also Double Click to open - No Lock-Up

I was able to do the same as the blank empty CD-RW disk to 2 full CD-RW disks, 1 started on 1/19/01, & the other started on 7/17/05. No Lock-Ups.

Next I tried the suspect CD-RW disk again, that I discovered this problem with yesterday or today. The results follow:

Windows Explorer:Right Click, then Left click Explore - Instant Lock-Up
Didn't bother to simulate the rest, as above with the blank & full disks.

Now it would appear to be something wrong with this particular CD-RW disk, but I don't understand why, as I was able to format it for Direct CD, read it & write to it or copy files from my hard drive to it, started 8/13/05. Why all of a sudden now, would it stop working, & why would it show good in the Direct CD Scandisk, Repair, Recover Utiltity if it's bad.

Now, the question is, if this is the case, then what can I do about it? The Direct CD Utility is supposed to be able to recover files but showed there was no need to recover any files. Evidently I can't get it to work the way it is. Can I reuse this CD-RW disk if I format it for Direct CD again? Would that erase the contents & free up the previously used space, just like formatting a hard drive? Would I be able to copy the same files from my hard drive back onto the CD-RW disk after & have it work?

 

You showed that the read laser is working, but you can't read what the write laser wrote. Could mean the write laser is out. Try writing a disk suitable for reading in any computer; if you can't read that, it's not really writing, and you need a new writer. If you do, get a DVD writer; it'll do both CDs and DVDs, and you can get one online for around $45 plus shipping. Easy to replace in most machines.

 

We know it can read older disks; want to know if it can read a newly written disk, preferably written on a fresh CD-R (not CD-RW), and if another computer can do so also. For example, just copy the Roxio disk.

 

To answer the questions re:RW disks, you don't need to format them to reuse them; you can just erase them. However, that requires that the write laser is working. Would be a test also, but more difficult to verify than just writing a new disk.

From above: CD-RW drives have two lasers, one to read and another to write and it's possible that one's not working any more.

 

My next suggestion would be to try a disk at once copy to a CDR (Not another CDRW)
Looking at the data/ free space etc, I think that you have run out of space.
Although a CDRW has 650MB of free space, some of this is lost to format , and each time you change the table of contents, it looses more.
See the discrepency?
Free Space:56MB
Total Space:535MB.

I normaly do not recommend just dragging and dropping "files" to a CDRW. I recommend using folders, to organize the files to prevent the type of problem you are having. I also recommend that you limit the number of times you add data to a CDRW to about fifteen max.
Finally I recommend that you stop adding when you reach about 400MB and then burn a copy to CDR (Actually it is best to stop prior to 350MB and then copy to folders and burn a new CDR).



Yes, normally you can erase and format a CDRW , no matter how bollixed up the data is . It will be lost, but if you have another copy good.
I would first try a copy at once to a CDR, and then erase the cdrw and finally see if anything is recoverable on the CDR.

 

The modern programs are designed with exactly that in mind, e.g., Drag-to-Disk and InCD. Been doing it for years.

And yes, I too copy the contents of the CD/DVD-RW to an appropriate CD/DVD-R when it's full, and usually can add several hundred megabytes additional because of the larger capacity. All this has nothing to do with solving the original question however.

 

sparrow:
So do you mean take a blank CD-RW disk, formatted for Direct CD, & try to copy files to it from my hard drive, just like I've done countless times before?

Or do you mean actually burn a CD by using a CD-R disk for a 1 time, fill, close, finalize, like I've also done countless times before? Those are the type of disks I actually close & finalize with just 1 session, when I burn music CDs.

Can I actually format, the CD-RW disk that won't read & locks up my computer, for Direct CD again? Will this wipe out all the data on the disk? Will it also free up all the space on the disk? Can I just copy the same files back to it that were on it before? The disk doesn't show as bad, according to the Direct CD scandisk utility, & showed there was no need to recover or repair files or find any lost files, as everything on the CD-RW disk checked out OK.

Do you mean to read it in any computer's, even my own, CD-ROM drive or must it be in a CD-RW drive, since I'm presuming you're only talking about checking if what the CD-RW drive writes, after this problem appeared can be read?

If the CD-RW drive is able to read what's already written but not able to write any more, according to your suggestion, why wasn't it able to read the almost 500MB of files that were already successfully written to the suspect CD-RW disk, started back on 8/13/05, but just not able to add or copy or write any more files to that same CD ?