Internal DVD burners dont work in external USB cases

I posted this on networking but it really belongs on this forum and since it is a long time probklem I was hoping to get to the bottom of this.

I have 3 computers, 1 main, 2 networked but they are in a seperate room and I run the monitor and mice cables through a hole in the baseboard. I have 3 burners, Pioneer 16xDVD, Sony DRU500a 4x DVD and a Memorex 48x CD burner DVD reader. These are internal drives that I have put in Belkin external USB cases and put on 6, 10 or 16 foot USB cables. All data is accessed from the file server, I cant get the 2 networked boxes to burn a DVD (on 10 and 16 foot cables) without errors or crashing, all are burned using Veritas RecordNow DX that came with the Sony. I think is a good buring program becasue it lets me remove files 1 by 1 unitll i have the right amount. What is the problem? This is a longstanding problem that, in theory, should work. This setup doesnt really work without the burners being able to be on extensions. If I thought there was a difference between putting an internal drive in an external box and a drive sold as an external drive, i would give it try so i am open to suggestions. I would think the data is going either 1.too fast, 2. too slow or there are protocols i am not aware of that wont let me do what I am trying even though in theory , it should work.

thanks, Roger

 

"Do the drives have their own power source so that they aren't drawing from the pc? "

Yes, they are AC powered, standard DVD/CD drives. I am using hubs at the end of the USB cable, but I tried using the drives without the hub and they still did not work. And the hubs are AC powered as well. I think the problem MAY have something to do with USB/cables/distance/networking, but just trying to pinpoint the problem. External DVD drives, in fact most external USB devices, come with a 6 foot cable as standard so i cant see that an extra 4 ft for a 10 ft cable is going to make or break the connection. So far the problem seems to be only on the networked computers and not on the main computer, using Linksys Gigabit cards on the 2 networks to 2 Gigabit LAN ports on the main board.

Roger