My problem is that I cannot burn data to my CDRW drive.

I have Sonic installed, and it gave me an error message that no recordable device was detected on my system. So I uninstalled that and installed Roxio. Roxio would make an exact copy from my DVD ROM drive to the CDRW drive, which is what makes me think this is a software issue. Roxio would not make a data disk and gave me the same message as Sonic about no recordable device being detected on the system. Windows Media Player will burn from selected play lists to the CDRW drive. So again, this leads me to believe that this is a software issue.

I spent two hours on line with Dell support, and their resolution to my issue was to reinstall the operating system. I asked if a system restore would help instead because I am not totally comfortable reinstalling the operating system. They said to try it. When I went to the restore sytem menu, there were no restore points to choose from. The only day highlighted was today, and I need to go back further than that. I say this because I recently installed new anti-virus software, and deleted AVG. I also either downloaded or updated (I think it was just an update) Real One Player recently in an attempt to back-up my daughter's Zen player. In the past week I have installed two photo editors. I want to go back before all this, but there are no days to choose from other than today. So, I am left with reinstalling the operating system unless I can figure something else to resolve this issue.

I have genealogy information and priceless pictures on this hard drive, and I back up my work frequently. It is a must for me. I am getting a very sick feeling about this in the pit of my stomach. Even though I would not lose that much information from my last back-up, any lost information is too much.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any help you may offer.

Sincerely,

Chris

First off a Repair Install should retain all of your data.

A good guide here: http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Back to the burner issue: Did you disable the XP burner? This is often a source of conflict with third party softwares.

Two places to check:

Right click the DVD/CD drive under My Computer then click Properties then Recording.

Uncheck Enable recording on this drive. This only affects the XP burner. In other words: turns it off.

The second setting is under Services: start Run... services.msc

Disable the IMAPI CD Burning. Again this only affects the XP burner.

You should only have one version of burning software installed as the setup options of different programs often corrupts basic settings.

Jephree-

Thanks for the reply.

When I right click on the DVD/CD or the CDRW drive, then properties, there is no "Recording" option. The tabs I have are Sharing, Settings, General, Auto Play, Hardware, Driect CD 5.0 options. Nowhere in any of those tabs is there "enable recording on this drive" option.

The IMAPI burning option is set for "Manual"....

Thanks for the info on repair install...will definitely check that out.

Chris

Driect CD 5.0 (Roxio) has apparently removed the XP burner.

I would still Disable IMAPI. Unless you choose to remove all burning software and let XP handle it.

That might at least be a good test. XP has a built-in CD burner (no DVD).

I looked at the link on the repair install. I think this is my best option at this point. It talks about installing the service packs and updates after a repair install, but *before* connecting to the internet. To do this, it talks about making a slipstreamed XP CD and recommends a program called Autostreamer. It requires the ability to burn a CD, which I cannot do at this point. Is it still possible to do a repair install and then immediately perform updates once reconnected to the internet?

Thanks again for all your help. I truly appreciate it.

Chris

One possible complication that I overlooked is that you mentioned Dell.

If this is a Dell computer then you will be limited to Dell Recovery Options.

The Stevens' page was intended for use with Microsoft's XP CD.

Dell has an interactive Recovery guide here:

http://support.dell.com/

Troubleshooting and FAQs

(insert your model)

How Do I Install the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system on My Dell Computer?

Unfortunately at a quick read it also requires backing up data to removable media. Here you could consider thumb drives and or any type of external drive.

Again removing all burning software might give your current system a chance to burn.

As to SP2 I download it and burn to disk so one does not have to go on-line. Perhaps you can do this on another computer or again a repair install should leave it on your current drive assuming that you can perform a Repair Install on a Dell.

Anyway the download is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

(ignore the multi-machine message).

Thanks again for the info. I really appreciate it. Either of the options the Dell page gives clearly states that all data on the hard drive will be lost. There has got to be another way. What about getting another hard drive, formatting the new drive, and then making the current hard drive a slave? Will that still give me full access to the info on this drive (as a slave) and also resolve the obvious software issues with the current drive?
Chris

You can take the drive out of the Dell and slave it on any other working desktop to extract the data.

Then return it and perform the Dell Recovery.

You would need to slave the drive on a computer with a functioning Operating System.

A thumb drive might be more expedient.

I truly appreciate all your help. Thanks again-
Chris

Thanks for the thanks!

Let us know how it goes.