Problem Writing to DVD-R

I have a Toshiba Tecra S2 running XP Pro SP3. I have for years been writing files to DVD-R and -RW simply by dragging and dropping in Windows Explorer. I updated to SP3 a few weeks ago, and now I find that although I can read used DVDs and CDs with no problem, I can't do anything with blank DVDs. When empty, the drive shows in My Computer as a DVD RAM Drive D:, but when I put in a blank DVD, it changes the description to CD Drive, and when I try to access the DVD, I get the message "D:\ is not accessible. Incorrect Function ". There was an identical problem covered in the thread http://www.WindowsBBS.com/hardware/57521-cannot-write-dvd-rw-drive.html but it was inconclusive and did not solve the problem. I've looked at Disk Management and it behaves exactly the same as My Computer. I tried doing what is described in the above thread but nothing changed.

DVD recording is enabled by default, and if CD recording is required, a box has to be checked in Properties. To record to DVD, the box has to be unchecked, and I have done this. I don't know if the problem relates to the upgrade to SP3 as I did not use the DVD drive immediately before and immediately after the upgrade, but I did not have the problem three weeks before the upgrade when I last used the function. I have used Device Manager to confirm that the latest driver is installed for the DVD drive.

Any suggestions?

Alistair

 

I've always recorded by simply dragging & dropping in Windows Explorer and have never thought about the software that's making this possible. I'm still not sure. I've found Sonic RecordNow by Roxio and also reference to software from the DVD drive manufacturer Matsushita. I've now tried writing to a DVD-R using RecordNow and it worked OK, but drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer still doesn't work. I went to Roxio and downloaded the latest driver directly but nothing changed. As I can play OK using a variety of player software (Realplayer, Windows Media etc), and as RecordNow can write to DVD, I feel the problem must lie with XP and therefore the upgrade to SP3, but I can't find anything to support that thought. Any comments?

Alistair