Can anybody help me please - recently copied new U2 album onto hard drive - all okay, put onto CD for the car, and at the end of the copy there was an error message, which read something like - could not copy onto CD. Clicked OK, removed CD, which I put into my stereo and it had copied fine. Closed Media Player down and deleted copy from my hard drive.

When I next went to use CD drive - my computer thinks there is nothing in the drive. Can see drive on Explorer, can see properties of drive and when click troubleshooting, it reports that device is working properly.

Have uninstalled the driver and reinstalled - problem remains same.

The problem is the same on CDs, DVDs or software disks ?

Many thanks,

welcome to dal

could you please tell me the exact error code/message thanks

Hi Spud, can't give exact error message as can't recreate it now, and at the time I didn't take much notice of it ! But it was more of a 'passing comment' message rather than a 'if your proceed the copyright on this CD will take your drive out' type of comment ??

Andrea, is this an internal CD drive inside a tower / desktop PC case or is it an external CD drive that you've got plugged into a laptop? It sounds like it could be an internal cable problem, i.e. the cable needs to be replaced.

Alternatively, you might find that there's a mark on the CD lens and it needs to be cleaned - that's another cause of a CD drive that is allegedly working OK yet can't read any discs.

I presume that you've been able to record music CDs without this problem before?

It's an internal CD drive in a laptop, and yes have managed to burn CDs in the past. Haven't tried a lens cleaning disc yet so will do that next

Thanks

You might also want to try removing the drive (if it is removable, which most are) and then cleaning the electrical contacts with an alcohol-based cleaning solution. Make sure it's completely dried off and then push the drive back in carefully but firmly to make sure that it has made a good contact.